How a nurse practitioner is reaching patients in Buffalo

She pulls in to an apartment parking lot, grabs her medical bag and walks up to the building’s side door, where Stefani Topsey greets her. By 10:42 a.m., Arnet and Topsey are sitting on a couch in the living room, knees facing each other, as the medical visit begins. Topsey’s cat, Antonio, closely watches.

For Arnet, an adult health nurse practitioner and the owner of Adult Health NP House Calls, making house calls isn’t just a nostalgic nod to how health care was practiced a century ago.

It’s a way to provide the kind of health care needed in Western New York. 

By providing at-home medical visits, she is meeting patients where they are, learning about their home environments and eliminating the kinds of barriers that had led some to go without needed health care for years.

As a Black health care provider who grew up on the city’s East Side, she has been able to build trust with patients, who have otherwise felt disenchanted by the traditional health care system. She gets to know them, listens to them, and follows up.

“Once they see that I’m a health care provider and I care about them and that’s why I’m here, I think they open up to me,” said Arnet, who also completed a Doctor of Nursing Practice program.

It’s work that caught the attention of Amherst-based health plan Independent Health, which partnered with Arnet on a pilot program geared toward reaching the insurer’s Medicaid members who hadn’t been seeing a doctor. 

Independent Health President and CEO Dr. Michael W. Cropp said the insurer contracts with Arnet’s business and has provided her with a list of about 500 inactive Medicaid users. She is now treating about 100 of those members.

For Independent Health, Arnet’s visits could turn out to be a good long-term investment, potentially helping patients to detect and…