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In light of complaints about care, UNC Health Care vows to highlight financial assistance Jane Stancill, Staff Writer CHAPEL HILL - UNC Health Care will soon send a more comforting message to patients — financial help is available if you think you can’t afford medical attention.

Signs, telephone messages and a financial assistance hot line are some of the changes announced Tuesday by UNC leaders, who pledged that the health care system won’t turn away from its longstanding commitment to treat all North Carolinians regardless of their ability to pay.

The promises are a response to a petition signed by 1,100 people who charged that UNC’s efforts to improve its bottom line prevent some poor patients from getting care. The drive was led by retired and current faculty members, and the petition was signed by some heavy hitters, including three area legislators: Reps. Joe Hackney and Verla Insko and Sen. Ellie Kinnaird. It was presented to UNC President Erskine Bowles earlier this month.

At a news conference in Chapel Hill on Tuesday, Bowles, UNC Health Care chief executive Dr. William L. Roper and UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser said the state-supported UNC Health Care System will do a better job of communicating its open-door policy to patients.

"If people have the perception that we are not properly serving the people of North Carolina, that’s a major problem," Roper said. "And if we have individual patients who fall through the cracks — that is, who don’t get the compassionate care and respect they deserve — that’s a major problem. I want to solve both the perception issue and the reality of the problem." (more…)

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