MultiCare financial navigators ensure equal access to care

As a nonprofit organization, MultiCare is committed to providing care to everyone who needs it. Our Patient Financial Navigation (PFN) department helps us make good on this promise.

Embedded in facilities across our system, the PFN team meets with patients who lack health insurance or are underinsured — meaning they have a large balance due after their insurance has paid for services.

The PFN team then works with patients to match them with financial assistance programs, help them apply and connect them with community resources. For example, a patient may be matched with a provider, within MultiCare or the community, who is willing to donate their time to deliver particular specialty services or procedures that patient may need. Or the patient may quality for financial assistance for health insurance premiums so they can access coverage.

The PFN team collaborates with nurse navigators, registration staff, social workers and care managers across MultiCare to identify patients who may qualify for support. In 2024, the MultiCare PFN team:

• Helped more than 100,000 patients submit financial assistance applications
• Screened 101,133 patients for local, state and federal programs, helping them access more than $800 million in support

“The financial burden of health care expenses can have a long-term impact on patients’ quality of life and their ability to adhere to treatment,” says Amy Bond, director of the PFN team. “Our job is to help people get the medical care they need, and to get as much of that care covered by insurance or other payers as possible. What’s good for these patients is good for our health system. Everybody wins.”

Building trust

Dedicated to pursuing health equity, the PFN team serves many vulnerable populations, including those who face language barriers. Many patients, regardless of their background, may struggle to navigate the complexity of the health care landscape, and they may not trust that health systems, like MultiCare, are working in their best interest.

One of the ways MultiCare aims to build that sense of trust is through partnerships with community organizations like the Tacoma Community House, Pierce Project Access and Project Access Northwest. These partnerships bring visibility to our services, encouraging people to seek the care they need.

“Our patients are sometimes choosing between paying rent, buying food or paying health care premiums,” says Gary Renville, CEO of Project Access Northwest. “When we can make the care they need accessible, then these people can be productive community members, supporting the overall health of the social and economic networks in which they live. Strengthening one person has ripple effects across families and neighborhoods and communities.”

At the Tacoma Community House, Executive Director Aimee Khuu sees community partnerships as crucial for filling the gap between the public and the health care system.

“Proximity is required,” she says. “We must get close to individual people to understand what’s at the root of poor health. That will help us create communities of health — not through programs or buildings or strategies. Community partners can help create the bridge between the public and the health care system with their presence and their services.”