A farmworker who needs to move northward to help with the next harvest – who has diabetes and needs more insulin. A person whose home was burned down during a wildfire, who is in the middle of cancer treatment. A child with a congenital abnormality requiring regular specialty care, whose family has to move to another state. What do these patients have in common? After they move, they struggle to access care, and they often stop their treatments, even when doing so is life threatening. Our health systems are not designed to assist people who have to move out of their clinician’s service area – that’s why we have Health Network. 

Health Network has prevented thousands of people from dropping their treatments, since its founding in 1996. To date, over 15,000 patients who have moved across the United States and Puerto Rico and to 149 other countries have benefited from Health Network – all because our clinicians have had the foresight to sign them up before they left their service area. MCN’s Health Network Associates find the patient care in their next location, transfer medical records, and assist the patient in signing up for programs like sliding scale fee programs for which they are eligible.

Now, we are expanding Health Network by introducing enrollment by Community Health Workers, health promoters, outreach workers, and other members of the clinical team who engage with agricultural workers and other members of the community who must move in the middle of treatment. To support the entire care team in enrolling patients who may be moving, we have numerous tools and resources, including:
 

1. Brand-new one-page handouts on Health Network, housed on the Health Network website, to give you the overview of Health Network, and why and how to enroll. You can print them out to share with your clinical team:

   Health Network Overview

   Health Network Overview for Community Health Workers

   Health Network Overview after a Disaster

   How to Enroll in Health Network

   Health Network for Farmworkers

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2. Our informative webpage and video mini-series that shows you step by step how to enroll.
   

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3. Regular webinars, offered in English and Spanish, on how to enroll. These webinars are also archived on our Archived Webinars page, including:

   Introduction to the MCN Portal for Enrolling Patients into Health Network   Health Network: A Care Coordination Program for Patients Who Move During Treatment (in English)   La Red de Salud: Un programa de coordinación de cuidados de salud para pacientes que se mudan durante el tratamiento (in Spanish)

Health Network is free for the enrolling clinician and free for the patient. It has been proven cost effective – and it has saved lives. Please take advantage of this incredible program, and share it with your clinical team.