The Florida Ozer Center
The Florida Ozer Center is a project of Agudath Israel of America's Florida Office which provides expert guidance and direction to help the Florida community navigate and effectively utilize available resources. Whether individuals need help with government programs, benefits, or other community resources, the Florida Ozer Center provides guidance and assistance every step of the way.
Below are two examples of the over 150 callers the Florida Ozer Center has helped in the two months since its launch:
Miriam* is a single mom who called The Florida Ozer Center for assistance in applying for Medicaid. She explained to Mrs. Arielle Teles, director of The Florida Ozer Center, that she was going through a particularly rough time; she works multiple jobs, but one conflicted with her child's dismissal time, so now her income was lower than ever. Mrs. Teles calculated that with her newly lowered income, Miriam was eligible for food stamps. However, Miriam said she had applied but been denied. When Mrs. Teles and Miriam went through her application, they realized that Miriam received a gift from the community, which she had included as part of her income instead as a gift/contribution. That small variance had put Miriam over the threshold for food stamps. The Florida Ozer Center helped Miriam re-submit her income documentation with the community gift correctly listed, and she was approved for hundreds of dollars monthly in food stamps.
All the kids in the Fried* family are on KidCare/HealthyKids, Florida's deeply discounted insurance program for children. The Frieds are very happy with the care their children receive, and never considered purchasing a different insurance plan. Besides, insurance is expensive – they couldn't afford a costly plan for all their kids. The only problem is that one child, Shmuel*, has very specific needs that are not covered by his family's insurance, and the Frieds were paying over $2,500 a month for Shmuel's services. The Fried's called The Florida Ozer Center searching for some way to ease the burden of this exorbitant amount. Mrs. Teles discussed all the available options for the Frieds' finances with the family and determined that the best course of action would be purchasing a separate insurance plan through the marketplace just for Shmuel, which would then be subsidized. The Frieds had never even heard of marketplace plans, let alone known that such a plan would cover Shmuel's services in an affordable way. Now all their children are receiving the care they need at a reasonable cost.
To contact The Florida Ozer Center, email ateles@agudah.org or call 305.532.2500 ext 4. | 
No comments:
Post a Comment