Programs

The Employee Assistance Fund at Cass Regional Medical Center Foundation was created in 2000 to assist Cass Regional employees in immediate need of financial support due to the occurrence of a crisis or other unexpected event. The Employee Assistance Fund is supported primarily by donations from Cass Regional Medical Center employees, though occasionally gifts from non-employees are directed to the fund at the request of the donor.

The Employee Assistance Fund Committee (the committee) reviews applications for assistance and makes determinations regarding grant amounts and purposes. The committee is composed of six employees who are elected by their peers. The term of each elected member is three years. Committee members may be elected from full-time and part-time employees who have been employed by Cass Regional Medical Center for at least two years.

Any Cass Regional employee is eligible for grant consideration by the committee, provided that he or she has concluded the 90-day introductory period. Applications may be submitted by any employee on behalf of another employee or by any eligible employee on his or her own behalf.

Examples of situations that constitute a crisis or other unexpected event, which creates a financial hardship for an employee, may include:

• Serious illness or injury that results in excessive medical bills and/or inability to work.
• Loss of employment due to economic environment.
• Unexpected death of immediate family member and associated funeral costs.
• Destruction of or serious damage to home due to fire, flood, tornado or other natural disaster.
• Destruction or disablement of auto resulting in unreliable transportation to work.

Requests for assistance must be submitted in writing along with supporting documentation regarding the bill or bills to be considered for payment on the employee's behalf. To obtain a request form, contact the Foundation office at 816.380.5888, ext. 7830.

The Employee Assistance Fund Committee may approve grants up to $750 per applicant, per incidence. Employees who receive assistance from the Employee Assistance Fund will not be eligible for a subsequent grant until six months have elapsed following the date of any grant award.

Cass Regional Medical Center Foundation has funded several pieces of vital medical equipment for Cass Regional Medical Center. Most equipment purchases are made possible through proceeds from the Foundation's annual dinner fundraising events.

Items most recently funded include:

• Expansion of medical imaging, including purchase of new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine (2016).
• Patient amenities for the infusion therapy and pain management clinics (2015).
• Equipment for the Patient Care Simulation Laboratory (2015).
• Construction of the Patient Care Simulation Laboratory (2014).
• Adult patient simulation manikin (2013).
• Pediatric patient simulation manikin (2012).
• Telemedicine robot (2011).

The Patient Assistance Fund is used by Cass Regional's case management staff to assist hindered patients with specific needs related to their care, such as medicine, home care supplies and transportation. Many patients who come to Cass Regional Medical Center are in need of financial help, and we do our best to aid them. Often, patients do not have transportation to go home from the hospital, let alone resources to pay for medications or health care supplies needed after they arrive at home. Since it started in 2005, the fund has provided over $108,000 in assistance to more than 1,450 patients.

The Pulmonary Rehabilitation Assistance Fund was established with proceeds from the Foundation's Boots, Bar-B-Que & Variety Show fundraiser in 2011. The program was developed to assist patients who are referred to Cass Regional for pulmonary rehabilitation but are unable to afford their co-pays or co-insurance for the 18-week, 36-visit program. Individuals with household incomes of up to three times the poverty level may qualify for assistance. If a patient is approved for assistance, he or she pays $5 to $15 per rehab visit, and the Foundation pays the balance from the assistance fund. In some cases, a portion of the balance may be written off as part of Cass Regional's charity care program.

Who is eligible?

Individuals with household incomes of up to three times the federal poverty level may qualify. See chart for more information.

You must have a physician's order for pulmonary rehabilitation and have completed the prescreening steps for Cass Regional Medical Center's pulmonary rehabilitation program prior to submitting an application for assistance.

You must be covered by private insurance, an employer-sponsored health plan or Medicare. If you are uninsured or have a medical plan that does not cover pulmonary rehabilitation, you are not eligible for assistance. However, you may be eligible for assistance as part of another program. Please ask your therapist for more information.

You must be a resident of Cass County, Missouri, or be under the care of a member of the Cass Regional Medical Center medical staff and receive your pulmonary rehabilitation at Cass Regional Medical Center.

The Foundation grants assistance on a first-come, first-served basis, to the extent that funding is available. For more information, contact the Foundation office at 816.380.5888, ext. 4650.