Narcisse asks how long enrollment takes; Long details timeline and member card

How long does the enrollment process typically take from initial contact to activation of service?

If you have your documents with you, we can go through that process in 30 to 45 minutes.

Once you submit them to us, it can take, you know, I think it's two days to a week or so for you to get in the mail the stuff that we're going to send you, which is really important.

I'll actually come back to that in a second.

But I think what Dr.

Jimenez is saying is very important that even as we're enrolling you in the program and we're going to be sending you things in the mail, we're going to make you that appointment right away.

That's what's the most important thing.

Yes.

And we're really proud, and I just really want to underline this because it was so hard to do.

We've offered more than 90% of all NYC care enrollees since 2019 an appointment within two weeks.

Which is unheard of across the rest of the country or on the private side.

Call another health care provider and try to get a new patient appointment in two weeks.

It's nearly impossible.

So we're very, very proud that we've moved heaven and earth.

We literally had Saturday meetings running the list of those that we didn't have a two-week appointment for and calling them back and offering them a sooner appointment just to make sure.

sure they could feel what it meant to really access health care through the program.

To go back for a second, when we said we mail you things in the mail, this is very important.

So before the NYC Care Program, we would never turn anybody away from New York City Health and Hospitals.

But your experience was you'd call and we'd say, sure, we'd love to see you, but the wait time can be three months, six months.

And then you may take that appointment, and then you may find access somewhere else, and you may not end up going.

So we had a very high no-show rate, but we were scheduling people really far out, so it wasn't as meaningful to them.

What we're doing now, and you didn't know who your doctor was going to be.

So when you enroll in the program now, we send you a card, a member card in the mail that will have your name on it, your doctor's name on it.

The 24-7 contact number to call, 646-NYC-CARE, with any questions you have about anything.

And then also your individualized fee scale.

So you, for example, chair and our C's would know this is how much it's going to cost to see Dr.

Long.

This is how much each medication is going to cost me based on my individualized income because we got all that data for you when we were evaluating you for health insurance.

This is how much it's going to cost to see every specialist.

It's how much it's going to cost to go to the emergency room.

So all those financial barriers that existed yesterday before the program are all torn down today to give people that certainty of being able to access care without financial fear.

We also are going to mail you a brochure, which has all the information in it with what it means to be part of the program.

We want to make you feel like you're a part of something, a part of the program.

And I think that's one of the secret ingredients that's kept people coming back and made the program so effective.

Oh, I'm going to have to follow up on that.