Jewish Family Services health project aids the new needy

Michigan's new needy are engineers, clinical psychologists, former administrators and clerical workers. They are husbands who don't tell their wives they've lost their jobs -- and health insurance-- for weeks.

These are the patients of an innovative network of 541 doctors who are providing free care through a West Bloomfield program called Project Chessed.

While Congress drags its feet over reform, the Project Chessed health plan, part of Jewish Family Services, is a direct response to Michigan's prolonged slump, offering free health care for qualifying patients in a way that's more like standard fee-based health care than a public clinic. The clinic itself is virtual: Patients get referrals to participating doctors' offices and to 15 hospitals who have agreed to provide care, including tests and surgery.

"These are patients who, without insurance, might otherwise die because they would wait too long to actively seek help," says Dr. Phillip Goldmeier, a gastroenterologist who provides care through the program.

The success of Project Chessed -- which has taken in 500 new patients this year and has served almost 3,000 people in five years -- is a reflection of the growing need for medical care, especially among people who never imagined they would find themselves in such difficult straits.

"Many of these people have been givers in the past, and they are reluctant to seek help. So we have tried to create a way that enables people to get high quality care in a dignified way," says Rachel Yoskowitz, director of the program, which serves the Jewish community.

Providing range of services

The plan has provided everything from basic services to cancer treatment and heart bypass operations. But it helps reduce emergency room care, because every member is assigned a primary care physician and has access to routine care.

One patient I interviewed praised the program and her surgeon, Dr. William Kestenberg. "He has been so very kind to me," she says. "I am so happy today that I am alive and this is behind me."

The providers, like the patients, are enthusiastic, because, as Goldmeier said, "it's an opportunity to give back."

Project could be expanded

Other groups and communities from in and outside the state are studying Project Chessed.

"We think it's an outstanding model," says Dr. Nahid Elyas, a Southfield internist and president of the Chaldean American Association of Health Professionals. "We're working to replicate it in 2010 in the Chaldean community."

Patients who pass the intake requirements -- and most clients earn too much for Medicaid but cannot afford private insurance -- are issued a Project Chessed card, and access to a coordinator who helps make appointments and keeps track of the patient's medications and follow-up requirements.

The plan allows physicians and other medical providers to provide free care without compromising their professional standards or tying up their office staffs.

Project Chessed lacks bricks and mortar but lives up to its name, Hebrew for "act of loving kindness."

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