Walgreens Pharmacy: Compassionate Care for Unemployed and Uninsured

If I were to award a good neighbor award to a pharmacy, Walgreens would be on my list of recipients. Chairman Hal Rosenbluth of Walgreens Take Care Health Systems division recently announced that free office visits will be offered to the uninsured and unemployed for the duration of this year. Would be patients must submit evidence of their unemployed or uninsured status. Anyone losing their benefits after March 31st will be able to receive free treatment in the pharmacy's Take Care clinics. It would seem that once the public hears of Walgreens free care for the jobless and under insured that there would be no lack of patients. Health care is one of the first benefits that the unemployed or uninsured individual puts on hold. All too often, people put off seeing their physicians and tend to cut back on health issues when money is tight.

What's Covered
According to Chairman Hal Rosenbluth, the clinic will service individuals with ailments such as infections, allergies, respiratory ailments and other minor ailments. The cost of an office visit is saved for those who present credentials verifying their unemployment or uninsured status. The savings to individuals is tremendous and not having to pay an office visit allows the savings to be used to cover any medications that may be prescribed.

What is not covered
The Take Care Walk In clinic will not offer injections, vaccinations, or free medical exams because the objective is to provide services that one would receive in emergency rooms or urgent care centers. If you need a physical check up you would need to contact a physician. If in doubt as to whether or not a certain medical procedure is offered, it would be advisable to call the clinic before appearing in person to avoid an unnecessary trip.

Availability of services and eligibility requirements
The Take Care Clinics will offer the free services Monday through Friday, no weekends. The hours of operation are 11 a. m. to 3 p.m. According to the press release, Take Care Clinics include services available in Atlanta, Cleveland, Miami , Chicago and 35 markets throughout the country. Walgreens states it operates 341 Take Care Clinics throughout the country. An attractive feature of the no cost care to the under insured and the unemployed is that children are eligible and spouses qualify if they do not have insurance coverage.through their job. The family is covered and has at least some peace of mind that basic care is available without anxiously wondering how the office visit fee will be paid, let alone the prescription medications.

To eliminate and avoid any possible abuse of the free services, patients are required to sign a form stating the health benefits have been lost and that they are no longer employed. Once the patient finds employment or obtains health insurance, they are dis-enrolled from the program. That's a fair requirement. The free care is only meant to be a temporary bridge to help keep families healthy in a most stressful time.

Quest Diagnostics is a partner in this compassionate initiative and will offer free lab tests for strep throat and urinary tract infections. Certified Nurse Practitioners and Physicians' Assistants will provide quality care and write prescriptions.

We salute Walgreen's for this compassionate initiative during a time of economic turbulence. Though they are unsure of the impact and scope of this project, Walgreens deserves respect and deep admiration for the action being taken by its Take Care Clinics to assist individuals with health care needs.