For immediate release: November 29, 2007
Contact: Anne McMillin, APR, Public Relations Specialist
Office 775-682-9254
Mobile 702-292-4247
amcmillin@medicine.nevada.edu

Student Outreach Clinic helps low income families
get medical insurance

Nevada Covering Kids and Families to be at December 8, 15 clinics

RENO, Nev.— The University of Nevada School of Medicine’s Student Outreach Clinic will again host representatives from Nevada Covering Kids and Families, a non-profit agency dedicated to health care access issues, at the December 8 General Clinic and the December 15 Children’s Clinic for the purpose of providing patients with information regarding Nevada Check Up and Medicaid.

          Nevada Covering Kids and Families was established by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with a mission of enrolling uninsured children and adults in existing health insurance programs set up for low income families.

          Nevada Check Up is Nevada’s State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) which serves children in families that make too much income to be qualified for Medicaid, but not enough to purchase private insurance.

          “Because the Student Outreach Clinic regularly treats low income families in northern Nevada with no insurance, we would like to provide them the opportunity to find out if they qualify for health insurance,” said John Sutherland, a second year medical student and SOC volunteer.

          According to Nevada Covering Kids and Families, a majority of the nearly 8.4 million uninsured children in the U.S. are eligible for either Medicaid or SCHIP. With the help of Nevada Covering Kids and Families representatives and the SOC, low income families in northern Nevada will not only be able to find out if they are eligible for these programs, but they will be able to begin the application process.

          Click here for eligibility information for Nevada Check Up and follow the “Do my children qualify for Nevada Check Up?” link.

          The Student Outreach Clinics for December are scheduled as follows:  Women's Clinic on December 3 from 6 to 9 p.m., General Clinic on December 8 from 8 a.m. to noon and Children's Clinic on December 15 from 8 a.m. to noon. All clinics are conducted at the Family Medicine Center on the UNR campus at the intersection of 17th Street and East Stadium Way off of North Virginia Street.

As the state’s only public medical school, the University of Nevada School of Medicine has been a leader in healthcare, medical education and research in Nevada since 1969. The School of Medicine includes 16 clinical departments including family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, internal medicine, surgery, and psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and five nationally recognized departments in basic science including microbiology and biomedical engineering. The more than 185 doctors of University Health System, the school’s clinical practice, offer care in more than 40 medical specialties and subspecialties with eight physician offices in the Reno/Sparks area and seven in Las Vegas. The school is committed to a best practices approach to medicine and is dedicated to exceptional healthcare for Nevada now and in the future. For more information visit www.medicine.nevada.edu.