Just a short letter to let Summit County residents know how very fortunate we are to have such an amazing county Health Department.  This past summer, my husband was bit by an angry raccoon. We went to the ER, which mandated that we do the rabies treatment. After the treatment, we discovered that our insurance company covered most vaccines except for rabies. Likely because the bill for these critical vaccines alone was more than $20,000.

Immediately after this treatment, we got a call from county nurse Sara Lopez, who offered to help us get the costs paid by our insurance despite its refusal when we called them. She not only spent hours on the phone working out the payment with our insurance company, she set up appointments for the next rounds of shots. 

We were pleasantly surprised that our county representative proactively called us and spent so much time advocating for our best interest. Lopez did not need to do this as we had already gotten the treatments and were not a threat for spreading rabies. She spent hours working with several groups involved to make sure we did not have to pay that outrageous bill completely ourselves and that we got all the services we need to be healthy and assure our community was, too.

Forever grateful to the dedication of Lopez and our county government for their dedication to serve. This is how government should work. Feeling blessed and grateful to live in Summit!