CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas —
The National Breast Cancer Foundation reports there is a 99% survival rate when breast cancer is detected early.
A new health care provider is doing what they can to make sure that being uninsured doesn’t mean women can't get the wellness exams they need.
Nurse practitioner Dr. Cindi Hedrick developed her company, Coastal Health Solutions after finding that when she told her patients in the emergency department to follow up with their primary care doctor, more times than not, they didn't have one. It was then she realized that there was a lack of access to care for those who were uninsured.
Coastal Health Solutions doesn't take insurance at all. They are a cash pay health provider for primary care and acute diagnostic services.
Now this month they're stepping up to give women a shot at detecting breast cancer early.
"I've known family members, friends who have had breast cancer and it is a very scary experience because you really don't know where life is going to lead you from there,” Hedricks said. “Whenever I talk to women about well women exams, mammograms, all those things they're like 'It sounds great. I just can't afford it."
Dr. Cindi Hedrick had been looking for a way to provide women's wellness resources for some time, specifically mammograms, for the community when one of her patients told her about First Friday. The organization provides free mammogram to patients who are uninsured and between the ages of 35 and 64 years old.
“Every year it feels like around this time we always find so many people that don't know about our services and we want to spread the word,” First Friday patient coordinator, Tisha Zirbes said. “We want people to know we're out here and if you need help, we're there."
For the month of October, Coastal Health Solutions have joined forces with First Friday to allow community members without insurance to come in for free mammogram orders.
“What will happen is I can write the orders through our company, and we're offering this as a free service to our local community to people that fit the criteria for First Friday, and then I will get those results,” Hedricks said. “It's very simple. We send you a letter in the mail and say 'Hey, you look good.' or If I see something in the results that concern us then I help reach you out to other services and that's when we can do diagnostic mammograms."
First Friday patient coordinator, Tisha Zirbes says it means a lot for another organization to step up to help women without insurance detect breast cancer early.
Zirbes is also a breast cancer survivor. Just over six years she received a routine mammogram screening that saved her life.
While getting your first mammogram screening may seem intimidating, she encourages every woman to get one
“A mammogram is not scary, Zirbes said. “A lot of people are scared that it's going to hurt or that they might get diagnosed with breast cancer, but early detection is critical for a woman to have successful treatment.”
For more information about Coastal Health Solutions, click here. You can also call them at 361-236-2022.