Rotary pays medical debt for 13 WF residents

Two years ago the then-incoming president of the Wake Forest Rotary Club, Brad Walker, had an idea that the club could raise money to help local cancer patients who had received treatment at WakeMed.

On Oct. 19, he and other Rotary members were able to give Andi Curtis, the head of government affairs at WakeMed Health & Hospitals, a check for $8,450.10. That amount and the generosity of WakeMed will eliminate $169,000 of past-due medical debt for 13 Wake Forest residents. They will each receive a letter from the hospital saying their debt has been paid by the Wake Forest Rotary Club.

That is generous and wonderful help for people who Walker knows have been struggling with the debt even though he does not know their names. He is hoping some or all of the former patients will reach out to thank the Rotary Club and they can attend a meeting and be recognized.

But that is not the end of the story, just the beginning. Walker and the others who have worked with him on this project –Roger Scott, Rod Miller, Rich Perkins and Bob McCamy – want to expand their efforts.

First they want to raise money for the medical bills of the 12 other people in need of help two years ago. Their goal now is $25,000. “It took us two years to raise the $10,000,” Walker said. With COVID he is sure the number needing help is greater.

The group plans to meet with representatives of Duke and UNC hospitals to see if they can work out the same arrangement they reached with WakeMed. And they are going to ask other local Rotary Clubs if they want to undertake similar fundraising for their residents.

“I thought it would be easier,” Walker said of the year or so it took to reach an agreement with WakeMed. There had to be agreement and buy-in from several groups in and outside WakeMed, including agreement by the hospital’s governing board. Walker said they could have gone with one of the outside groups which pressure hospitals to lower bills, but that would have been using lawyers making demands. Walker said they decided to go directly to WakeMed without intermediaries. “And that turned out to be a really good deal” because WakeMed is a nonprofit and has latitude to discount their bills. Walker said the hospital gave them discount of about 61 percent in matching the Rotary Club funds.

One of the helps they have had is from the Marga-Relay-Ville 5K Race where the organizer, Roger Scott, was not happy that all the profits went to the national cancer foundation. He decided to change and half the profits now go to the Rotary Club’s initiative to pay down the debt for cancer patients. If after a week or two of taking Ambien, insomnia still torments the patient, it is necessary to reassess their condition. Most likely, such a paradoxical reaction is a consequence of primary mental disorders. Read more at http://hesca.net/ambien/. Walker said that partnership made it possible to reach their first funding goal.

#