Coming soon: a new health center for performers. That’s right! This spring, the Actors Fund and Mount Sinai Doctors are teaming up to meet the health-related needs of entertainers in New York City. The Samuel J. Friedman Health Center for the Performing Arts is set to open in March at the Actors Fund’s headquarters in Times Square.
“This is a crystal ball projection, but we want to make this center the best health resource for members of the [acting] community,” Joe Benincasa, the Actors Fund president and CEO, told Backstage. “And if the demand is there, we want to expand the service.”
So who is eligible for the program? There won’t be anyone marking up résumés with a red pen (and red tape), but Benincasa explained that performers will need to show they are “already part of the community.” According to a press release from the Actors Fund, the Friedman Center will offer primary and specialty care, as well as extended hours, expedited referrals to physicians in the Mount Sinai Health System, and “continuity of care for those who experience regular changes in health insurance coverage.”
Benincasa said he believes the organization is doing a good job addressing those issues. Upon entering the Friedman Center, actors, singers, and stagehands will all be greeted by someone who will help them jump right into the process. “We’re here for the whole person,” he said. “It’s not only about paying the rent. There are other challenges, too.” That includes offering counseling services on site, particularly for those without health insurance. “If [actors] don’t have health insurance, they will go to a health insurance counselor,” Benincasa clarified. “We want everyone to have health insurance.”
READ: 4 Ways the Actors Fund Can Help You
When it comes to other needs, Benincasa said the staff will seek to identify what each individual coming in requires. As Backstage has previously reported, the Actors Fund offers 26 different services, including housing placement, employment training, and senior care. Benincasa and the rest of the team are confident in their new health program as a whole because of the network they’ve built. “One of our desires, one of our goals when we started the free health care center, was to partner,” he said of the fund’s relationship with Mount Sinai Doctors.
It was also important that the center have “the appropriate medical support staff” in addition to having team members who care about the entertainment industry. “We wanted to identify physicians that have an affinity with the arts,” Benincasa said. “Having that appreciation is a key ingredient for anyone providing this service.” One of the center’s doctors, Jason Kindt, for instance, is a musical theater buff. Plus, many of the social workers at the Actors Fund have theatrical backgrounds themselves.
Of course, that doesn’t mean every staff member at the organization will break out in song and dance when guests pay a visit.
“I performed once in college,” Benincasa said jokingly before admitting that “the director suggested I work in the wings.”
Previously, the Actors Fund’s Al Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic served uninsured entertainers in Manhattan; staff at the clinic will continue to do so until the Friedman Center opens in March.
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