Letter to the Editor from Healthy Howard

October 13, 2011

Dear Editor:

This letter is in response to the  and published on Oct. 13, 2011.

In Robinson’s letter, he misrepresents a very important point about our program by stating that “[Healthy Howard] has managed to hide the dirty little secret that its cost-per-patient is a multiple of what normal insurers would charge.”

We would like to clarify this misstatement.

The Healthy Howard Health Plan serves Howard County residents that earn too much money to qualify for state assistance programs but earn too little to afford health insurance on the private market.

The health plan’s cost-per-patient is approximately $1,350 per year with patients paying approximately 50 percent of that cost. With that, we offer comprehensive health services that include primary care visits, in-patient hospitalization, emergency and urgent care, lab tests, diagnostics, prescription assistance, care coordination and our nationally recognized model of health coaching.

To the best of our knowledge, this is far below the rate that “normal insurers would charge” for these comprehensive services with no yearly deductible.

For more information about the health plan and other services that we offer throughout the community, please visit www.healthyhowardmd.org.

Sincerely,

Liddy Garcia-Buñuel

Executive Director, Healthy Howard, Inc.