The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian medical plan yesterday said it has expanded to south Florida by signing up 20 doctors for clients to choose from when in that state.

Corinna Neely, FirstCare Medical Plan’s president, told Tribune Business that it does not operate as an insurance company but instead as a “primary healthcare medical plan” that offers medical insurance. It is registered with the Insurance Commission of The Bahamas as a “discount plan”, with Ms Neely saying: “That’s a huge difference as it relates to insurance.”

“Our plan is really non-discriminatory,” she added. “This is for persons who cannot afford major medical or those who had no coverage at all and had pre-existing illnesses. That means persons with hypertension, obesity, HIV and anything like that that, insurance companies would not insure you.

“We have decided to come up with a plan for anyone regardless. We have a network of doctors where you can go to the doctor for free. The other aspect of that same plan is where you can see specialists, labs, pharmacies and a wide range of medical services.”

Wanting to add more benefits to the plan during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ms Neely said: “We added the Florida network and, also during COVID-19, we added to tele-health for our members because doctors’ offices were closing, were closed or were seeing a limited amount of people. So we introduced tele-health to our members in March last year.”

To take advantage of the south Florida expansion, clients will have to pay an additional charge along with their basic FirstCare plan levy so it can accommodate the “steadily growing” 20-member doctor network in South Florida.

The tele-health programme has slowed as COVID-19 vaccines become more widely available, but Ms Neely said it proved useful “during last March, April and May when people were on lockdown and they had ongoing issues, and they needed to connect with a doctor”.