Molina Healthcare of Nevada Grants $350,000 to UNLV Health Nearly Doubling Access to Care at Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic with State-of-the-Art Equipment and Staffing
Media Contact: Rhonda Frazier, Rhonda.Frazier@MolinaHealthCare.com, (562) 980-2849
LAS VEGAS, Oct. 1, 2024 – Molina Healthcare of Nevada (“Molina”), in collaboration with The MolinaCares Accord, has announced a $350,000 grant to UNLV Health, expanding access to care at UNLV Health’s ear, nose and throat (ENT) clinic in Las Vegas. Grant funding has helped hire the clinic’s first nurse navigator dedicated to assisting patients and their families. The funds will nearly double the number of ENT clinic patient exam rooms with specialized equipment to treat complex care needs.
The partnership expands the availability of ENT services in Clark County where there are 1.8 licensed ENT physicians per 100,000 residents, compared to the national average of 3.6 per 100,000 residents. Nurse navigators serve as a single point of contact for patients and their families, ensuring personalized care needs are met, while building relationships between patients and their physicians. Data analysis shows the addition of navigators to a patient’s care team increases a patient’s overall satisfaction of their treatment, improves adherence to medication and treatment completion, reduces wait-times, and decreases the number of no-shows and appointment cancellations.
“Molina is honored to play a role in expanding access to ENT care in the Clark County area,” said Rob Baughman, plan president at Molina Healthcare of Nevada. “This partnership improves and streamlines care, ensuring patients see better health outcomes, and specialists can more efficiently and effectively provide timely, high-quality care in our community.”
Through the grant, UNLV Health will be able to service more ENT patients with additional fully-equipped and operational clinic procedure rooms, bringing the total number of rooms available at the clinic to 15. The grant also supports the purchase of cutting-edge equipment needed for patient procedures requiring specialized care, including ear microscopes and laryngoscopies to examine patients’ voice boxes.
“This generous grant is enabling UNLV Health to secure the critical resources we need to increase our capacity and meet growing patient demand,” said Robert C. Wang, MD, FACS, professor and department chair at UNLV Health. “With Molina’s support, we are already seeing an increase in the number of patients we can accommodate simultaneously and an improvement in workflow and patient satisfaction.”
About Molina Healthcare of Nevada
Molina Healthcare of Nevada, Inc. provides government-funded health care to members in Clark and Washoe counties through Medicaid, Nevada Check Up, Medicare and Marketplace. Through its locally operated health plans, Molina Healthcare, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, provides managed health care services under the Medicaid and Medicare programs, and through state insurance marketplaces. For more information, visit MolinaHealthcare.com.
About The MolinaCares Accord
Established by Molina Healthcare, Inc., The MolinaCares Accord oversees a community investment platform created to improve the health and well-being of disadvantaged populations by funding meaningful, measurable, and innovative programs and solutions that improve health, life, and living in local communities. The MolinaCares Accord funds such measures through the Molina Healthcare Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)(3) established in 2020 by Molina Healthcare, Inc.
About UNLV Health
UNLV Health is the clinical faculty practice of the UNLV School of Medicine. The ENT services offered at UNLV Health’s clinic are performed by board-certified, fellowship-trained physicians as well as highly trained audiologists that see patients of all ages for basic to advanced problems with ears and hearing, voice and speech including dystonias, swallowing, nose and sinuses, throat and airway, sleep apnea, external deformities, mouth and jaws, head and neck tumors and cancers, as well as reconstruction including using microvascular free flaps.
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