An article in the New York Daily News written by Thomas Tracy reports about a new 9/11 World Trade Center Health Program clinic that is set to open in Lower Manhattan. The need for an additional clinic is founded in the estimated 2,800 WTCHP enrollees waiting for their first appointment. The enrollees need certification that their illness is 9/11-related from clinic doctors.
Kimberly Flynn, chair of the World Trade Center’s Health Program's Survivors Steering Committee said,
“This is serious progress. Survivors’ needs are getting addressed — people looking to get certifications to support their Victim Compensation Fund claims are going to get them, and people who want the specialized care that only the WTC Health Program provides are going to get it.”
New patients received a letter that included the following details about the clinic.
“The clinic will provide initial health evaluations (to find out if a patient has a health condition related to the WTC disaster) and coordinate covered treatment with WTC providers in the New York metropolitan area,” Per the letter, “Members who have been waiting the longest will be scheduled first.”
A federally funded group, Logistics Health Inc. that oversees 9/11 health evaluations and monitoring will run the new clinic.
There was close to a 43% rise in WTCHP enrollees from December 2017 to March of this year. More than half the 836 March enrollees are first responders and the other 401 are people who lived, worked or were students in the exposure zone around Ground Zero following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
“This has been long time coming,” Flynn said. “We are finally breaking through the wall of repeated denials. People realize that their health really was impacted and are now asking for care.”
Photo source @9/11Photos via Flickr
Read on: bit.ly/New911Clinic
