- November 23, 2024
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Palm Coast OB GYN accept patients without insurance. Not because it’s good for business, but because it’s good.
Palm Coast OB GYN, run by Dr. Patricia Modad, opened in June. Since then, it has seen a steady stream of patients, whether or not they had insurance.
“That has always been my philosophy,” Modad said. “I open my heart. I open my office … (But) does it make any financial sense? No, it does not.”
The new, bilingual clinic, at 50 Leanni Way, is the only of its kind in Flagler County that accepts Medicaid.
But for Modad, payment isn’t the point; treatment is. With no local gynecology options for women on Medicaid, she said many go without seeing a doctor.
“Philosophically and ethically speaking, I have a problem with that,” she said, citing figures from a 2009 health profile which show the United States ranking below more than 30 other countries — including Poland and Cuba — in infant mortality. Modad partly attributes the ranking to poor prenatal care.
Half of Flagler families with children 5 or younger, she added, are currently on Medicaid.
Before Palm Coast OB GYN, women in these families had nowhere to turn in town.
In the four months since Modad’s opening, she has seen migrants, Medicaid patients and patients without insurance. She has even administered free treatment.
“It’s very sad, in a country like ours, to have no options,” she said, adding that some of her patients travel two hours to her clinic, lacking Medicaid-accepting offices nearby. “To me, it’s unthinkable that someone would be pregnant and not get prenatal care.”
Modad received her medical degree in Arizona, and has been a board-certified gynecologist and obstetrician for about 12 years.
A minister’s wife, she is no stranger to charity work. She used to help at homeless shelters and is currently active in Volusia County’s Healthy Start, as well as the Substance Abuse Task Force.
She tells the story of a patient who worked as a janitor part-time for a hospital, but was on Medicaid. The woman feared that she was ill, but no doctors at her workplace were allowed to see her. When she finally visited Modad, a mass was discovered in her breast.
“A physician can’t ignore the fact that the population needs your services,” she said. “I’m not going to make any huge changes; I know that. (But) I know this is what I need to do in order to sleep well at night. This is a problem, and I want to be part of the solution.”
For more, call 447-6831.
