Ensure patients receive the care and financial assistance they need with RAMP. Short for Rapid Applications for Medical Programs, RAMP is a customized web-based tool to screen for financial assistance programs like Medi-Cal, CMSP, Crime Victim Compensation, Section 1011 and hospital assistance/charity.

First introduced to HASC members last year, RAMP is already providing a significant return. In 2011, a multi-state health care organization with several hospitals in California posted 88,994 financial program screenings using the system. More than 29,000 have been screened in the first quarter of 2012. Centinela Hospital Medical Center began RAMP implementation March 15, 2012. Within 60 days, the hospital screened 170 patients.

R&B Solutions, the developer of the software, recently upgraded the program to include screening questions for each household member related to:

1. Date of Entry – Documents non-citizen household members’ U.S. date of entry.
2. Eligible for COBRA – Documents household members who are eligible for COBRA through a previous employer.
3. COBRA monthly cost – Allows members of the household to enter a cost for COBRA to justify non-election of COBRA coverage.

RAMP has also expanded the system’s ability to obtain financial information about significant others/domestic partners.

An easy-to-use application, RAMP streamlines many administrative processes. Based on an interview, RAMP auto-populates certain fields of relevant application forms and allows attachments like medical releases and charity documents. The system even facilitates income estimation, address verifications and the gathering of other financial information for quicker, more accurate applications.

Contact Ana Reza, areza@hasc.org, for more information.