Episode Transcript
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It's Tennessee Matters on the Tennessee RadioNetwork. Welcome to Tennessee Matters. I'm
John Clark on the Tennessee Radio Network. The Tennessee Charitable Care Network is Tennessee's
network of not for profit clinics andprograms providing free or reduced cost healthcare services
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to those in need. They existto support the work of their members through
education, advocacy, funding and networking. Today we're joined by Christy Grinstaff and
Mattie Callahan Tennessee Charitable Care Network.It's good to have you both in here
today. You've been working with uson a campaign that has to do with
getting vaccinated. Can you talk aboutthat a little bit? Yes, Yes,
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we'd be happy to. The TennesseeCharitable Care Network is a membership association
of free and charitable clinics and programsall across the state of Tennessee, and
we have partnered with the state Departmentof Health to get the message out about
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the importance of vaccination. Our membersstrive every day to work with primarily the
uninsured population across the state to helpthem lead healthier lives. They provide medical
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care, dental care, pharmaceutical assistance, and community health worker services, and
so part of what they do isboth educate their patients and community members about
the importance of vaccinations. And sowe want everybody to have the best shot
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of being healthy having a high qualityof life, and so we're out there
promoting the things that we think leadto a healthier lifestyle. Just COVID vaccinations
are all vaccinations, Well, we'rereally interested in all that vaccinations. Okay,
you know, through the winter monthswe were focused on COVID nineteen flu
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and RNSV, right, and sothen fortunately we've come out of that time
period, but still get the vaccinationsin. Yeah. Yeah. We want
people just to know that, especiallypeople who might have other health conditions like
diabetes, heart disease, things thatmight make them higher risk for severe illness,
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that it is important to be vaccinated. Do you focus only on health
issues or do you focus on otherissues as well? Well? We focus
on comprehensive health issues and what wecall social determinants of health. So we
know that for many of our patients, they might want to get healthcare,
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but they're uninsured and they're not surewhere to go or if they can afford
healthcare. We also know that especiallyin rural areas, Transportation is a real
barrier. Not everyone has their owncar, and so getting to an appointment
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can be a barrier. There maybe other needs like housing, food,
insecurity, and so as part ofour efforts, our members have hired community
health workers and they are really focusingon helping with those social determinants. So
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many questions there. I've got somany questions. Now, you mentioned people
that don't have insurance. A lotof people. I've heard of a lot
of people who don't have insurance andthey can't They may need surgery, but
they can't go pay for that surgerybecause they can't get the insurance. You
help them. We do so.In addition to out clinics that provide medical
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care and dental care, we havemembers that are Project Access programs and there
are five of those across the state. They operate regionally and they help coordinate
access to specialty care and surgeries.And so there is a process that you
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have to go through to qualify,but that's available and they are really out
there. You know. One ofthe kind of secrets to our work is
that our members use volunteer providers andwe really count on them to help make
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this system of care, the safetynet system work, and so the project
Access Networks have recruited specialists that volunteertheir time and services for people who are
uninsured and low income. Well,so somebody may need a type of surgery
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or just to go see a doctoror something anything, then they don't they
don't have to just go well,I can't pay for it, I can't
do it now. They've got somewhereto go. They've got somewhere to go.
And often if people are unaware ofthe resources, they end up in
the emergency brand, right, whichis the most costly source of care,
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especially if you have a cold oryou feel like you're coming down with the
flu, or you know, maybeof uncontrolled diabetes or hypertension, things that
really are more either you know,chronic conditions or might be a cute but
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not necessarily a margin, right,because if they go to the emergency room
and they end up waiting forever,and it drives up emergency room costs too.
So you can that's really remarkable thatyou know, you hear about it,
and people will well, there's lowercost medicine, there's this and that
and this and that, and peoplego, well, I can't afford it.
I can't afford it. I can'tI have zero cost? Is there
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is there? There's no cost available, no no cost to them. Well,
all of our clinics are a littlebit different. Okay, some of
them are totally free. Some ofthem have what we would consider a nominal
fee to the patient. But youknow, for them, I mean,
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our umbers have such a heart forsince they serve and they really try to
work with everyone. Who are yourmembers, primarily the local they yeah great
questions. So in the Nashville areawe have members such as Faith Family Medical
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Center, Saloon, Interfaith Dental.We also have a project access program in
Nashville and surrounding counties. In Memphiswe have Church Health Center and they actually
are fairly well known across the country. They're sort of a model charitable clinic.
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And East Tennessee we have Interfaith Health. We have free medical clinic that's
in Oak Ridge and surrounding areas.And then all the way up in the
Upper East Tennessee we have members HealingHands, Friends in Need. We have
we'd love for people to come toour website www. TCC network dot org.
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We have a map and a listof all of our members but those
are just a few. Yeah,I see here on your map. I'm
holding the map, folks. Soit's a lot of them. They're everywhere.
There are two sides of the page. I mean, there's a lot
of various members. All these membersdo various things though, right that they
do we do. Our members providemedical care and or dental care. Those
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are kind of the primary services thatare offered. But many of them provide
pharmaceutical assistance I exams and then againaccess to that specialty care. And some
of our members have mobile units andso they're actually we talk a little bit
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about transportation being a barrier, sosome of our members are actually taking their
mobile units out into communities so thatpeople, you know, are closer to
the care that they need. Sono more do you have to worry about
saving up money to have surgery orhave some some whatever source you want,
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whatever you need to have, youcan go to somebody and find out.
Yes, we you know, wereally encourage people to reach out ask the
questions. We have a form onour website and we get people submitting it
pretty frequently saying, you know,this is my need, Where can I
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go? Who can I connect to? And you know, we have our
members also in the healthcare safety netin this state or the federally qualified health
centers, and so if we don'thave a member in a certain area,
we have a partner climate that wedo on first so the person can just
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call and say I have this problemgoing on. Where can I go?
And then you tell them, yes, we can direct them. That is
amazing. What is it? Whatgive the website again or the phone number
again? Yeah? The website iswww dot t CC network dot org.
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Go to there and you can findout how how do you do this?
Look at the other side of it, how do you fund it? Yeah,
that's a great question. So invarious ways our members, most of
them have tremendous community support. Manyof them, you know, might have
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been founded by a church or alocal group of physicians that see the need
in their private practices or in theirhospitals day in and day out, or
just you know, a group ofcitizens who say this is a need in
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our community. We want to meetand so, you know, there's lots
of community support. Our members do, many of them fundraisers, you know,
multiple times a year and really dependon that community support. Most of
them also receive some foundation support,other maybe local government. And then majority
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of our members are part of Tennessee'sUninsured Adult Healthcare Safety Net and that is
a fund that is funded by theTennessee General Assembly and they receive funding from
that based on the number of uninsuredservices they provide. Okay, so what
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are some of the ways you raisemoney for? Some for some for to
get contributions to the access to whatyou need? Of course you yeah,
yeah, so our members are reallycreative. In fact, I'm gonna ask
Maddie in a minute to talk aboutshe was just at one of the fundraisers
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for Interfaith Dental. You know,they do dinners, they do events,
they do fund runs. It spansthe damn it. But let me yeah,
Mattie, Mattie for just what doyou do? What are some of
the things that you've seen? Sure, So, a week or two ago
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I went to inter Faith Dentald's annualgala and the theme for that this year
was big Wig and so the costumeswere pretty incredible in the whigs. People
really just go all out with theirthemes. I'm trying to think of some
other events that we've seen recently.Some of our clinics have done like carnivals
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to bring in the community free medicalclinic and Oakridge partnered with their local government
to do the ball drop on NewYear's Left Care. And so, like
Christy said, members are just reallycreative in trying to bring in not only
supporters but also the community. AsChristi mentioned, you know, some of
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these clinics kind of sprung up fromjust people in the community seeing a need
and wanting to meet it, evenif they had no medical, dental,
behavioral health background, just wanted toreally support their community. And so they've
done a really great job of engagingtheir communities, bringing people in, bringing
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all the partners to the table thatneed to be there because a lot of
these communities that they you know,you think, yeah, you don't need
to if you're your doctor, yourdoctor or your nurse, just give your
time. But they have other costsinvolved. That's to say they didn't charge
anything for the costs of the person. There's still many costs, many costs
that are involved, and it's likethe like a procedure, it just costs
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money. So that's why you needto re raise this money. That's what
we tell people. That's why youoriginally absolutely and all of our members more
than likely have donate button on theirwebsite. I know, if you're interested
in giving to one of our membersin the community, check out the list
on our website and visit some ofthose individual websites. Yeah, because some
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things, you know, you getthink about a local need to have glasses.
Let's look at these glasses. Somebody'sgot to pay for these glasses.
These glasses have to be paid forby a company. So that has to
be paid for regardless, even thoughthe physician can offer you that time for
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free. So let's pay for this. And so that's that's what your cost
all right. Yeah, And ourmembers, you know, really do provide
a really great value for every dollarthat you give to them, right.
You know, it varies of courseby the area and the member of the
service that they're providing. You know, every dollar that you give, they're
providing several more dollars in care receivedwhen you look at the market value of
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that care right right, because itcosts costs one, it costs a lot
of money and and some people anincredible amount of money. And so this
is great, this is great tohear it. With that, how about
ongoing help for the people If peoplehave well they have surgery, but then
I got to have ongoing help.How do they provide that too? They
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provided that as well. Yeah,as Christie mentioned Project Access one of our
members, they really you know,sear that care coordination process from the time
the person applies from the assistance,you know, until their their cares complete.
They make sure that they're getting totheir appointments and you know that nothing's
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falling through the craft right. Theytake them, they take they have a
service to take them to. Theypartner with goal transportation providers if that's the
need. But they have you know, really really good case management services.
They're really walking with someone, youknow, step by step to that.
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Do you have people that are likecase managers with your company or with another
company. Yeah, the community healthworker that Chresi was describing earlier, that's
really the sort of the medical casemanager model. In dental they sometimes call
them community dental health ornators, andso these types of community health workers,
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they're trusted members of a community andthey really you know, you might get
intimidated in front of your doctor totell them some of the things that are
going on, but then they reallyform a relationship with their CHW and then
they're able to really you know,find out what those additional needs are.
They go into their homes sometimes,you know, really just find out more
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about the person's life and their needsand are able to really really help them
in a lot of different areas.Any any idea of how many people you're
serving now and how you could serve? Yeah, so, you know,
we if you the State Department ofHealth does a great of safety net reports,
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and so when they break it downby you know, community of faith
based for our members and then theother types of providers, and so in
looking at the number of patients formedicals over fifty thousand, for dental over
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thirty thousand, and then the ProjectAccess programs work with over twenty thousand people
in FB twenty three. Well,do you think there are more people probably
that could use it? I thinkso. I think that you know,
people sometimes a medical need is unexpected, for a dental need is unexpected.
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You know people, and people mightlose their job, they might lose their
insurance for another reason, and soyou know, I think that you don't
really think about what services are availableuntil you're in need, and then you
know, it seems emergent, likewe talked before, and you don't feel
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like you've got the bandwidth or thetime to go look up all the resources
at that point. So I thinkthere are more people in need right now
in the state. You know,the ten Care program or Medicaid program has
gone through it's what they call theredetermination, and so we know that people
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you know, may no longer qualifyfor their ten care coverage and so may
become uninsured. So I know thatthere are people out there who you know
and maybe just feel like I'm prettyhealthy, you know, I'm not sure
I need anything right now. Butwe also really encourage preventive services, you
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know, getting in make I'm surethat you're doing those things on the front
end so that you're not you know, having late and later times diabetes,
heart disease, hypertension. Those arethe things that you know, we really
see quite a bit about. Andyou deal with people of all ages too,
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not just the older people that aredealing with it too. You know,
majority of our members see adults,okay, and you know it can
be any age adult and a fewof our members also serve children. But
for the most part in Tennessee,most children do have access to kind of
insurance. Okay, something you mentionedearlier was behavioral health. That that has
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to be because that sometimes they think, well, I got to take this
for behavioral health. I don't Ican't afford it, I don't need it.
Really, I'm all right. Theyseem to think that is that the
case? It's behavioral health. Doyou behave health too? Some of our
members are offering behavioral health. Youknow, there's a whole other kind of
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behavioral health system of care and safetyNet and the state, but our members
certainly see it. Lots of people, you know, tend to be reticent
to walk into a community mental healthcenter and they feel more comfortable just saying
to their doctor, right, youknow, this is how I'm feeling.
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So we are seeing more of that. And there's also you know, when
we think about behavioral health, there'salso the substance abuse right right, And
opioid use and misuse is a hugeissue right now. And our organization,
the Tennessee Charitable Care Network, hasjust been awarded some of the opioid Abatement
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grant good and so we're going tobe doing more in the coming couple of
years around educating our members about youknow, recognizing opioid use. Where are
the referral sources making sure that that'sreally top of mind for folks. That's
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great because that's that's so that's reallybad right now. Ye. So yeah,
we've been talking about that for solong and we've been working at it
for so long, but it's stillstill bad. It really is. And
our Opioid Abatement Council, you know, they've been doing really tremendous work and
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they're getting out their first round ofgrants. You know, we anticipate in
the coming months. People have justbeen notified recently and you know, we
we believe there'll be many years offunding for that. So we're really hoping
to see a big increase in youknow, prevention services, treatment education around
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that issue in the coming years.If someone wants to use a service that
they have to use a certain doctor, it said to be a doctrine and
you're using your services. So soour members, you know, they they
each have a physical location, theyhave a clinic location, and they really
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use sort of the hybrid. Youknow, they have some employed providers and
then some volunteer providers and so youknow, each clinic probably handles that a
little bit differently. You know,when someone comes in, they'll the clinic
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will have that manage that part ofit. Do you help, do you
help them get on some low costinsurance or do you stay out of that
completely? You know, for thecommunity health workers, I think you know,
if someone if they believe someone mightbe eligible or insurance, they can
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certainly walk them through that process.Right, but you're just there if nobody
has any insurance, they just go, just go, just go. That's
great, that's fantastic. They gothere as part of that safety nets.
Well, that's that's amazing. Andlike you said, there's probably more people
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that need that now they're sitting there, sitting there listening to this show and
they're sick and they need they haven'tseen somebody in so long. They need
to go see somebody and they needto see them. And this is great.
Again, where are the locations.It's all over the state, but
where mostly most of them were allover the state. And so you know,
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if you look at our map whenyou go to our website, you'll
see that we've really got good coverageupper East Tennessee, East Tennessee down in
Chattanooga and sort of southern Middle Tennesseeand then you know, lots of locations
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in Middle Tennessee. We don't haveas many members in the rural West Tennessee
area, but then we do haveseveral members in Memphisation that are available.
And you know, the other thingthat I would say for anyone listening,
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you know, if you're in acommunity that does not have a resource for
the uninsured, we would love totalk to you because literally, you know,
most of our members were sort ofbirthed out of a passionate group of
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people in the community. You know, it could be somebody who you know,
is at the hospital and just seespeople in there er coming in and
say like, wow, they couldreally we just need a primary care clinic,
or we need a low cost dentalclinic. You know, it could
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be a local provider, it couldbe a church, and we'd love to
talk with you about and connect youwith one of our members to find out
how you might get a clinic startedin your own community. Just took the
just took the question out of mymouth. I was going to ask you
that next, because that's so importantis just getting there and getting you see
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all that you don't have any members, you probably do have some people there
that would help out. I thinkso, I think so. And it's
you know, it's sort of alabor of love. You know, it's
not easy by any means. Andlike you said, many people when they
come to a free or charitable clinic, they haven't had insurance for a while.
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You know, they may have multipleconditions, you know, things that
are not you know, under control, and so you know, it's it's
not just here, let me writeyou this one prescription and send you on
your way. You know, ourmembers really care about the whole person,
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really want to say, you know, here are all the things that we
think you need. And it maynot be a quick fix, but we
want you to stay with us,you know, and over time we're really
going to work on those are thoseare such life saving things, and to
save someone's life, it's you can'tbeat that. It's not you can't put
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cost on. That's that's great,you can't. You really can't. And
you know, you you have tohave a heart for people to do this
kind of work, and you know, and people have to be ready.
It does take a commitment on thepatients side too, to say I'm going
to show up to my appointments,and I'm gonna, you know, follow
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what my doctor says, and I'mgoing to talk to my HW if I've
got some barriers or challenges and trustthat we're going to be able to work
through them together. That's right.And so they do have someone at your
organization or from your organization who canhelp them out and help them walk through
it too, Yes, absolutely absolutely. And the number that you call where
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should they go again to find out? Yeah, the website is www dot
t CC network dot o org.Well, thank you so much. This
has been I did not know this, did not know this. This is
great, but no, but Idid. I had no idea you had
this, and I've had I've hadfriends of mine who have been still and
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have said, well, I don'thave insurance, I can't do it.
You're like, yes, you dothis, there's insurance available, this this
somebody available can help you and theyjust are gonna let you lay that and
just die. And this is great. It's great to know. Well,
thanks for helping in our story.Thank you very much, Thank you very
much. That's Christy grin Staph andMaddie Callahan from the Tennessee Charitable Care Network
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find out more at tccnetwork dot org. If you have questions or comments about
today's program, you can email me, John Clark at iHeartMedia dot com.
Thanks for listening. I'll talk toyou next week right here on your local
radio station on Tennessee Matters