AccessNET Provider Collaborative & Patient Navigator Network
Expanding Access, Increasing Positive Health Outcomes, & Lowering Costs
Before leaving office in 2009, the Bush Administration announced an award of nearly $1 million to the Palmetto Project to demonstrate that our patient navigator concept would increase access and improve health care outcomes for people without health insurance while reducing costs… and we’re doing it.
AccessNET is a unique partnership of agencies, community organizations, and other providers of medical services to residents of Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley, Georgetown, and Colleton counties without private health insurance. It works to create greater access to care, more effective coordination of services, and more efficient use of health care resources.
According to Program Director Laura Morris, “Nearly 85% of all health care resources in this country are expended on people with chronic diseases. We are trying to show that through better management of these patients, we can bring down costs and improve their health care outcomes.”
In addition to the provider collaborative, AccessNET relies on a network of patient navigators, strategically placed throughout the five counties to assist any uninsured resident in gaining access to care. Navigators identify barriers to treatment, develop strategies for addressing those barriers, find medical homes, and make referrals to other service providers and agencies as needed. Navigators also support clients in keeping appointments and maintaining prescribed courses of treatment.
Among the participants in AccessNet are the Charleston County Medical Society, East Cooper Community Outreach, the Medical University of South Carolina, Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach, Trident DHEC, the SC Office of Research & Statistics, Charleston-Dorchester Mental Health, and Franklin C. Fetter, St. James-Santee, and Sea Islands Community Health Centers.
- AccessNET was chosen as one of six programs for funding from a pool of 231 applicants nationwide.
- An initial evaluation concluded that AccessNET patients were experiencing significant improvement in their overall health, while the costs of providing that care declined by as much as 27%.
- AccessNET has also been funded with grants from the Samuel Freeman Charitable Trust, CareEvolution Foundation, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation, the Duke Endowment, and the Trident United Way.
Contact: Laura Morris at lmorris@palmettoproject.org
