Assistance is offered to low-income and struggling patients for expenses not covered by insurance.

HOW IT WORKS

Providers send us requests for assistance on behalf of struggling patients. Requests may be sent from physician offices, case-managers at Cookeville Regional Medical Center, school nurses, health department staff, hospice providers and other community service providers.

We help with things like:

  • Medication
  • Medical equipment
  • Screenings
  • Wellness classes
  • Medical services
  • Transportation
  • Groceries
  • Utilities or rent
  • Nutritional supplements
  • Common household equipment

In addition to direct assistance, we help coordinate charity care with providers for low-income, under-insured patients.

Cancer Fund

No one should have to forego cancer treatment because they can’t afford to meet basic needs.

You can help. Your gift will provide the assistance needed to ensure that a cancer patient can continue treatment without the burden of worrying about providing the essentials for their family. One hundred percent of your gift goes toward direct care for cancer patients in the Upper Cumberland!

Patients grappling with a cancer diagnosis face a mountain of hurdles to overcome, from the moment of diagnosis through the treatment process and into recovery and remission. Patients seeking help come from all walks of life and demographics, from a variety of age groups, and from all across the Upper Cumberland.

Cancer can be devastating physically, mentally, emotionally and financially for patients and their families. Many patients struggle not only in dealing with their cancer but with financial hardship due to fighting the disease. Cancer can mean time off work or unemployment, dozens of trips to and from treatment, expensive medicines and unbelievable stress placed on families as well as patients.

Caring Hands Fund

Healthcare should not be a luxury. Many people in our community struggle to make ends meet. Needs like medications, medical equipment, treatments or procedures, travel expenses to and from the hospital, groceries or supplements, and utilities should be accessible to everyone.

For working poor families, the bitter truth is that they make too much money to qualify for many government programs but not enough to easily afford meaningful insurance.

You can help provide compassionate care for a patient in our community. This fund was established to help any Upper Cumberland resident who is struggling with disease, sickness or injury.

Diabetes Fund

Education is important when it comes to managing diabetes.

Diabetes is a chronic, complex health condition so the Diabetes Fund is flexible to meet the wide needs of diabetic patients. The fund enables patients to participate in diabetes health and nutrition classes, offers transportation assistance to rural and low-income patients, helps with wound-care needs, and covers basic critical medical and home needs for patients when other resources are unable to help.

Heart Fund

Time off work, medical expenses, and increased living expenses often follow heart surgery and create serious financial stress for some patients, especially for working poor and impoverished patients.

This fund provides temporary assistance to heart patients and their families who suffer.

The fund was started when heart attack survivor Paul Smith decided he didn’t want anyone else to have to go through the financial hardships he endured after his double bypass surgery. He needed several weeks to recover from his surgery, but because he works on commission, he became unable to pay for basic necessities like rent, food and utilities. So, as soon as he recovered, he dedicated his efforts to establishing the Humble Hearts Fund.

Hospice Fund

The Hospice Fund is about responding compassionately to our neighbors during their final days of life.

Partnership with hospice organizations is a natural extension of our core mission. We collaborate with all hospice providers throughout the Upper Cumberland to provide support to hospice patients in need of charitable assistance.

Individuals who receive assistance are vetted by healthcare professionals to ensure donor funds are distributed to patients with the greatest need.

Donations of any size are helpful and increasingly needed. As with all Foundation funds, gifts to the hospice fund are 100% restricted – this means that your entire gift goes to help a hospice patient.

Please consider being a blessing to a neighbor in need by supporting the Hospice Fund.

Mental Health Fund

The Mental Health Fund supports projects and activities that improve transition of care, reduce stigma of mental illness, raised public awareness about mental health, and support mental health services for under resourced individuals and families living in the Upper Cumberland.

Pediatric Fund

Our pediatric assistance program helps the most vulnerable among us — our children.

We help:

  • Children living with a condition that families are struggling to treat
  • Low-income families dealing with an acute or ongoing medical need for their child
  • Babies born into families that cannot cover basic needs, like diapers or bottles
  • Children going through rehabilitation for cognitive, motor, emotional, language, behavioral and developmental issues
  • Babies born into addiction who require special treatment, monitoring and support
  • Families with infant loss or babies born with terminal condition
  • School-aged children referred by nurses at the school system in all 14 counties

Give now!

Help a patient in need by
donating today!

Donate Now