Edith Meeks, Senior Officer, NYFA Source/Performing Arts

Keith Haring Permanent mural at Woodhull Medical Center Courtesy Woodhull Medical Center

If you’ve chosen to pursue a full-time career as an artist, chances are good that you’re uninsured. Where can an uninsured artist go in New York City to get affordable health care? Brooklyn’s Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center has announced an initiative called the Artist Access program that allows artists to exchange patient services for health care credits.

The idea for the Artist Access program was born last year, when Dr. Edward Fishkin, Medical Director of Brooklyn’s Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center, met Laura Colby on a training course offered by the New York Cycle Club. Colby is a former dancer who now represents a roster of performing arts companies as owner and operator of Elsie Management. Fishkin was interested in reaching out to the burgeoning artist community in the Brooklyn neighborhoods Woodhull serves: Williamsburg, Bushwick, Greenpoint, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Fort Greene, and over the next eight months, he and Colby met with several organizations and individuals representing New York City's arts community.

The Artist Access program, which launched in May, allows artists, through performances or interactive programs for patients, to exchange their art for health care credits. These credits are accrued in the artist’s personal account, 40 credits for each hour of work, and can be used in lieu of dollars to cover sliding scale fees in Woodhull’s HHC Options program. So, for example, an artist who performs one hour every week for patients at Woodhull will accrue credits worth $160 in a month’s time. Credits can then be used as needed toward fees incurred at Woodhull for health care services. The hospital’s Creative Arts Department reviews proposals for art programs to determine if they are appropriate for hospitalized patients and matches programs with departments such as the Pediatric, Geriatric, or Rehabilitation Units. The hospital has expressed an initial preference for performance programs, but an artist brought in to test Artist Access is currently teaching drawing in the Pediatric Unit in exchange for treatment. Mural projects for the many walls and stairwells in the hospital buildings could also be considered.

Dr. Fishkin describes the New York City public hospital system as the city’s best-kept secret. This organization of “safety net” hospitals is charged with the mission of providing health care to all New Yorkers, regardless of their ability to pay. The New York City Health & Hospitals Corporation operates facilities in every borough except Staten Island: Bellevue, Metropolitan, and Harlem Hospital Centers are in Manhattan; Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center, North Central Bronx Hospital, and Jacobi Medical Center are in the Bronx; Queens Hospital Center and City Hospital at Elmhurst are in Queens; and Kings County Hospital Center, Coney Island Hospital, and Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center are in Brooklyn. In addition to these 11 acute care hospitals, the network includes dozens of small, community-based primary care and child health clinics, seven diagnostic and treatment centers, and three long-term care facilities.

At this point, Woodhull is the only hospital in New York City that has initiated a trade program such as Artist Access. But all of the city’s public hospitals offer the sliding scale program called HHC Options, along with financial counseling to help patients determine what insurance coverage may be available to them. Uninsured patients who are ineligible for Medicaid, Medicare, or one of the New York State insurance programs (such as Family Health Plus) can be enrolled in HHC Options, which establishes a fee scale based on income. It ranges from $15-$60 per visit. Residents of the five New York City boroughs who earn an annual income up to 400% of the federal poverty level—about $36,000 to $37,000 for an individual—are eligible. There is no monthly charge for enrollment in the plan. The fee for a doctor’s visit includes most x-rays and lab tests. There’s a $10 processing fee for each prescription, up to $40; after that, the remaining prescriptions are free. Surgery, invasive procedures, MRIs, and colonoscopies are also fee-scaled. HHC Options can also be employed for those who have limited insurance coverage and have difficulty meeting their copays or deductibles.

Keith Haring Permanent mural at Woodhull Medical Center Courtesy Woodhull Medical Center

If the words “public hospital” conjure up the image of a bleak, institutional charity ward with rows of beds and few amenities, long waits in crowded waiting rooms, and brusque, patronizing attendants, a trip to Woodhull is a revelation. The bright, high-ceilinged entry halls sport murals by Keith Haring. Most rooms are singles, including those in the brand new post-partum ward, due to open this month and still redolent with the smell of freshly sanded wood. Equipment is state-of-the-art, 98% of doctors on staff are Board certified, and Woodhull’s staff is committed to the goal of a one-hour turnaround time for clinic visit.

Colby talks about how artists are often excluded from basic services that those working in other sectors can take for granted, thus the importance of Woodhull’s Artist Access program. “When you don’t have what is considered a real job in the United States of America, you don’t have access to what are commonly known as 'benefits' in this country. You get offers for so-called 'affordable' health care coverage, but I’m sorry, $500 per month is neither affordable or reasonable for an independent contractor or freelance worker in this country. There’s a lot of shame in our community around this issue, shame about being outside of the 'normal' system. I am thrilled that Woodhull’s Artist Access program addresses that issue head-on by providing comprehensive health care to the artistic community and by placing a unique value on artists’ work.”

For a downloadable application to Woodhull Medical Center's Artist Access program, visit:
www.nyfa.org/files_uploaded/health-care-application.pdf

To contact the program directly, call 877.244.5600.

For more information on hospital programs and insurance options in New York City, visit:
www.nyc.gov/html/hhc/html/community/hhc_options.shtml
www.actorsfund.org/ahirc
www.actorsfund.org/human/social/
www.nyfa.org/source