Me Thinks

This is Dr. Demetrio Aguila. He gives patients at his Healing Hands of Nebraska practice the option to pay for surgery through volunteer work.

Dr. Demetrio Aguila was tired of hearing stories about patients' who found themselves saddled with crushing medical debts. Rather than watch his patients drown in medical debt, the surgeon decided he wanted to find a solution that worked for him and his patients. So he partnered with several local charities to start the M25 program, which enables his patients to "pay" for surgery with community service hours instead of dollars.And although he does accept lump-sum and installment payments for procedures, his M25 program also uses a time-based billing system that counts volunteer service as payment. His clinic tabulates a reasonable price for each procedure and then determines how many community service hours would cover that cost. What's more, the program allows patients to recruit friends, family, neighbors, and even people they've never met to accumulate the volunteer hours to "pay" for their treatments.

Creating a program that benefits that entire community is what Aguila says he'd hoped for when he started the program."In my heart of hearts, I had this hope that we would rekindle in our neighbors and in ourselves a sense of volunteerism," said Aguila.

 

What a marvelous idea.  I applaud him!

(https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/28/us/doctor-takes-payments-in-volunteerism-aguila-cfc/index.html)