Your membership makes a difference for you and your community. Membership is open to physicians and physician assistants in Western NC.
“I’m a member of WCMS because I enjoy having further information about what’s going on in the political community around me and in the medical community around me.”
“I joined WCMS because I’m so busy taking care of patients all day I don’t have time for all the medical, political morass that we have to deal with. These guys do a great job of it and I’m so grateful for that.”
We always welcome your feedback. Please send us an email or call 828-274-2267 if you have additional questions or to tell us how we can make membership with WCMS more valuable.
Project Access® addresses the comprehensive health care needs of low-income (under 200% of the Federal Poverty Level), and uninsured people in Buncombe and Madison counties. Project Access has an expansive network of specialty care and hospital partners who provide donated care including preventive screenings, hospital care, surgery, cancer care, specialty outpatient care, mental health care, diagnostic care such as labs or imaging, medications, and durable medical equipment.
Providers pledge an annual commitment to the program. This is a number of patients to see throughout their course of care as opposed to a number of visits. The pledge amount can be for the practice as a whole or individually by provider and can be per month or for the year. Providers and practices are not reimbursed for these visits. All care, supplies and staff time is donated. No money is exchanged for visits; Project Access is not an insurance program, it is however a way to help our community members stabilize their health so that health insurance is more attainable.
“Project Access® fills an urgent need in our community allowing us to coordinate preventive and wellness care that keeps patients’ overall health at a higher level. As a result, our volunteer physicians limit the episodes of crisis care such as hospitalization or emergency care, which is always more expensive and less desirable for patients.”
Bill Hathaway, MD
Contact Rosalia McHattie, Director of Health Access & Equity Programs, at 828-274-2267 ext. 1307 or rosalia@mywcms.org
Contact the WCMS Interpreter Network (WIN) at 828-274-0950 or win@mywcms.org
Call us at 828-274-6989 or email projectaccess@mywcms.org
*The Health Access Navigator Team works with applicants, verifications, referrals, denials and other daily Project Access operations.
*We can provide our tax ID if you require it for your records. Please send us a claim for each Project Access visit so that we can keep track of kept appointments. We can provide a quarterly count to each office to monitor referrals.
Project Access exists thanks to the donations of local physicians, hospitals, pharmacies, and other providers. Every year we place an ad in the Asheville Citizen-Times to thank our volunteers. This ad typically runs in the summer and thanks providers for care in the previous year.
WIN is a program of the WCMS Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit.
We are dedicated to breaking language barriers to improve access to care and reduce health disparities. We provide interpretive services to practices for appointments with limited English proficient (LEP) Project Access patients at no cost to the patient or the provider. This includes multi-hour chemotherapy infusions, physical therapy, surgery, and more. We obtain grants and donations to offer free interpretive services to providers who serve low-income, uninsured LEP patients in rural and underserved counties in Western North Carolina. WIN continues to work to increase access to care for all LEP individuals in our region.
“WIN always comes when we need them! They consistently send top quality interpreters who really care.”
“We are a very busy practice and don’t have the staff to track down interpreters when we have an urgent need. With one call WIN comes to the rescue! I don’t know what we’d do without them.”
The WCMS Job Board is an excellent resource with successful contacts made by both job seekers and employee seekers. FREE for WCMS 100% member practices.
The WCMS Provider Directory is available in an electronic pdf or printed book.
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