Grande Ronde Hospital | FY2019 | Community Benefit Report

3 financial care is no different. Our Financial Services Program has elevated our patient’s financial care to complement the quality health care we provide. Our patient financial stories highlight not only the effort our counselors make to help people with their GRH bills, but how helpful and knowledgeable they are about what help is available from our community partners and other institutions. They are also experts in helping patients discover what their current insurance plans cover, get provider service estimates, sign up for insurance under the Oregon Health Plan, explore options in the Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace and keep up on what local community partners have available. Reaching out Connie Currie’s financial story began after a trip to the ER where the doctor told her she had experienced a heart attack. “At first I didn’t believe it! It wasn’t like anything you think a heart attack would be like,” Connie recalls. Connie felt pain on her left side while she was working in her garden, but thought little of it until she began to have trouble breathing. After a couple of days, Connie, who lives in Baker City, told her husband he needed to drive her to the ER in La Grande. “I love Grande Ronde Hospital. It’s my hospital,” Connie says. “I won’t go anywhere else if I don’t absolutely have to.” So they drove the 45 minutes to La Grande, but once they checked in and the staff whisked her straight into the ER to start tests, Connie says she was shocked to find out she’d had a heart attack. “Dr. [Lew] Baynes told me I had suffered a heart attack and that it wasn’t able to pump the fluid that was building up in my lungs. He wanted to fly me out to the hospital in Boise, but all I could think about was how expensive a flight like that would be. We live on our Social Security. So I said, ‘no, I’m not going to do that,’” she recalls. “And that was when Teresa came to see me. I don’t know who told her to—maybe the doctor. Anyway, she contacted Life Flight to find out what their financial assistance program could do. She came back with a number and a plan from them that I could live with, so I agreed to go,” Connie says. A few months later, after she was better, Connie met with Teresa about the hospital bill. “Even that was easy. I just took her the statements and financial information she asked for and she did all the work. It’s so easy—it was all just stuff we already had—I just had to gather it up for her,” she says. “Teresa took care of every- thing for us.” LEFT: Carrie Laurence, GRH Patient Financial Services Manager CENTER: Teresa Leddon-Minch, GRH Patient Financial Counselor, and Karli Wright, Director of Business Services, opened the first Financial Counselor’s office in 2013 in the lobby of Grande Ronde Hospital. RIGHT: Allison Wilgus, Oregon Health Network Marketplace; Jorge Martinez, Oregon Health Authority; John Fleming, Local Insurance; and Eric Griffith, Northeast Oregon Network, gather in the GRH Solarium in December 2019. These community partners and others join with our Patient Financial Counselors at GRH on a monthly basis to collaborate and help one another determine how best to serve the people of Union County.