Tufts Health Plan Grants $10,000 to Volunteer Health Center Program

Photo by Erin Tally Flanking Anne Marie Boursiquot King (third from left), manager of community partnerships and volunteerism at Tufts Health Plan, are representatives of the MMS Committee on Senior Volunteer Physicians (left to right): Iolanda Low, M.D., committee member; George Benjamin, M.D., committee chair; and Jane N. Coleman, M.D., committee vice-chair.

Volunteer physicians provide essential, charitable medical care to the uninsured and underinsured in Massachusetts through the Committee on Senior Volunteer Physicians Health Center Program. For the past two years, the Committee has received a $5,000 grant from Tufts Health Plan in order to expand the program. Recognizing the critical need for the services these volunteers provide, Tufts Health Plan’s Community Partnerships Program recently increased its funding to $10,000 for the upcoming year.

Anne Marie Boursiquot King, manager of community partnerships and volunteerism at Tufts Health Plan, said, “We are pleased to support the Health Center Program because it gives access to care to the at-risk and underserved in many of our communities across the state.”

First established in 1997, the program provides liability insurance to retired physicians and other physicians no longer engaged in clinical practice so they can deliver services to patients at free health care clinics across the state. Massachusetts law stipulates that all physicians who participate in free-care programs must be licensed and have malpractice insurance. For physicians no longer in practice, the high cost of insurance premiums can be a deterrent to volunteering. To address this barrier, the MMS forged an agreement with ProMutual Group, the largest professional liability insurance carrier in the state, whereby the carrier offers limited liability insurance policies to retired physicians who agree to provide care without reimbursement.

Due to the 2004 Tufts grant, the number of retired volunteer physicians participating in the free-care program rose by seven, to an all-time high of 35. Collectively, these physicians provide approximately 440 hours of free health care each month at 18 locations. The cities and towns they serve span the Bay State and include Boston, Hyannis, Falmouth, Whitinsville, Worcester, Leverett, Hudson, Shrewsbury, Shutesbury, Waltham, and Great Barrington.

For more information about the Health Center Program, contact Erin Tally at (800) 322-2303, ext. 7413, or etally@mms.org.

– Erin Tally