Centers are crucial in helping members manage chronic conditions
Published in the November 13, 2013 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Staff Report
David Fent
Medicare advantage health plan firm CareMore recently opened an office in Gilroy to serve the South Valley region including Morgan Hill. The company has a mission of providing focused and innovative healthcare approaches to the complex problems of aging.
CareMore health plan members have local primary care doctors and specialists. They also have additional benefits available at the CareMore Care Center emphasizing disease prevention and management.
David Fent, health plan representative, has been working as an insurance agent in Morgan Hill for seven years. He started working for CareMore in 2012 and has been instrumental in opening CareMore in South County.
Why are you excited to be involved with CareMore?
What makes me excited is the feedback I receive from members on how CareMore has made a difference in their lives. CareMore provides an extra layer of care for its members. When they are sick they go see their primary care doctors, and if they have chronic conditions they can also see doctors and nurses at the Care Center to help them manage their care. There are many different programs for our members ranging from high tech wireless blood pressure monitors that give members who qualify 24-hour access to medical professionals, to low tech toe nail trimming.
What kinds of personal services does CareMore provide its customers?
CareMore’s Care Centers are the pulse of the plan. These centers do not replace your doctor, they partner with your community health professionals. For instance, new members receive a Healthy Start where they spend about an hour speaking with a nurse practitioner about their health. Who else takes this kind of time to really get to know you, your health history, health concerns and desires? It’s a mind and body approach and it makes a huge difference. Some of the other services offered at the Care Center are classes and appointments with a dietitian and podiatrist for medical reasons as well as for toe nail trimming, talk therapy by licensed professionals and wound care.
What does CareMore do that’s different from other insurance companies?
CareMore’s focus on members truly sets it apart from the crowd. We have plans that fit a variety of people’s needs, ranging from fit people who rarely go to their doctor to people with chronic conditions like diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or heart disease who may need extra attention to help them with their conditions. It’s a very high touch organization that believes the model of care is important. I always recommend that those looking at Medicare options ask the health plan to explain their model of care. It should go well beyond premiums, co-pays and benefits. CareMore is more than insurance. It’s a health plan that touches its members at all points in their health care continuum.
