Shoebox Fund inspires Goshen Health Patient Support Fund, filling financial gap for patients

Dr. Larry Allen is a longtime physician at Goshen Physicians Family Medicine Syracuse and has served as Goshen Health Systems’ medical director for population health for the past 10 years. In both roles, Allen strived to make a difference in patients’ lives beyond his job description. This commitment to helping others led him to create the Shoebox Fund while he worked at Goshen Physicians Family Medicine Syracuse, an idea that later inspired the Goshen Health Patient Support Fund.

Prior to retiring from his role as a family physician, Allen had a front-row seat to observe the needs of patients, and many of those needs were financial. While there are social services, foundations, and community programs that have the ability to help in some cases, those can come with due process to determine if a need is legitimate. Since Allen had a firsthand understanding of his patients’ needs, he created the Shoebox Fund to give patients a helping hand in a timely, personal manner.

“Who is better than the primary care doctor at the point of service to be able to say if something is a legitimate need? I was happy to take money out of my pocket and give it to them, but there was a gap and a need for something a little bit more than that. I had some patients in my practice who were very blessed, understood the need, and volunteered to start giving me money every year as a donation,” Allen said. “I had a shoebox in my office, and I put the money in the shoebox so that it would be there when I needed a little extra cash to help somebody right at the time of service. That’s where the benevolent fund started, which we called the Shoebox Fund.”

Over the years, the generous contributions to the Shoebox Fund have been supplied by Allen, various community organizations, patients, and the Alcoholics Anonymous group that has met in the Goshen Physicians Family Medicine Syracuse building for 20 years.

“It doesn’t take that much. Being able to pull out $50 for a patient to buy an inhaler can make a huge difference. Sometimes a patient just needs $30 to pay for a ride home when it’s cold outside,” Allen said. “I’d say medicine and transportation are the two biggest things that the Shoebox Fund has covered. I remember one time giving somebody a couple hundred dollars to get on a train to go to Iowa to see her sister who was dying. This was an elderly lady who had no way of getting out there, and it was such a burden for her that she couldn’t see her sister. She was depressed about it, but she didn’t need antidepressant medicine—she needed money to get out to Iowa. We went ahead and got a little deeper in the shoebox for that one.”

Similar to Allen, the nurse care coordinators at Goshen Health are able to identify the financial needs of patients, and it is their job to ensure patients do not fall through the cracks. Modeled after the Shoebox Fund, Goshen Health Foundation created the Patient Support Fund to help fill in the financial gap for patients in need.

“The Patient Support Fund provides immediate, meaningful relief for patients facing financial hardship at some of the most vulnerable moments in their lives,” said Goshen Health Foundation Vice President Jim Caskey. “It helps remove barriers to care—whether that’s covering a critical prescription, providing transportation, or meeting an essential need that allows a patient to focus on healing. Its impact is personal, direct, and often life-changing, offering dignity, stability, and hope when patients need it most.”

Caskey is grateful to the Goshen Health staff for coordinating this financial care for patients through the Patient Support Fund as well as the donors who make the financial relief possible.

“The Goshen Health Patient Support Fund is entirely supported by generous donors — individuals, colleagues, and community members — whose philanthropy reflects a deep commitment to caring for others,” Caskey said. “These are people who recognize the very real needs our patients face and choose to make a meaningful difference through their compassion and support.”

Prospective donors can contribute to the Patient Support Fund with a tax-free donation through Goshen Health Foundation. For more information about Goshen Health, visit goshenhealth.com.