Consistent with Grameen’s banking model, GPC is launching a program that places the specific health needs of this underserved community foremost, to increase access to care, knowledge, and patient engagement.
The four pillars of the GPC model include: enhanced primary care, a wellness program that leverages the Grameen group model, connected health tools, and some combination (determined through testing) of deeply discounted services and health savings accounts.
1. Enhanced Primary Care
Both Grameen and Iora have powerful and unique approaches, which will be synergistically combined through the wellness center. Iora is an enhanced primary care program that uses coaches and other strategies to improve health outcomes while reducing emergency room visits, hospital admissions and direct costs. Health coaches are the linchpin of their model and are carefully selected for their customer service orientation and personal knowledge of the community, rather than a background in medicine. The coaches role is to motivate the patients, help them navigate the health care system and better-manage their health.
2. Wellness Program
GPC is leveraging the Grameen group model to offer a wellness program that offers weekly classes on health. To gain access to the wellness center, members will be required to attend these classes, on topics ranging from: women’s health, diet and nutrition, fitness and weight management, and disease prevention and management. The goal is to engage GA members in continuous learning and empower them to make healthy choices. These meetings can further promote prevention and enable GA members to cultivate healthier communities.
3. Connected Health
GPC will utilize innovative technology to educate members on their health and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Iora’s IT system will offer patients an online medical record, and ClickMedix’s platform will allow members and health coaches to track key metrics online. Members will also be introduced to Shared Decision Making (SDM), a process by which patients become much more informed and involved in decisions surrounding their care, which can enable them to form connections with other members and provide each other support.
4. Discounted Hospital Services and Insurance
The size of the Grameen population allows us to aggregate demand and use group purchasing power to negotiate services. We will facilitate access to a combination of discounted services, insurance, health savings accounts and other support for care not covered under the enhanced primary care. By partnering with UnitedHealthcare, we will enroll those who are eligible into a Medicaid or an alternative Medicaid managed care plan. For those who are not eligible for Medicaid, due to immigration status, we will use group purchasing power to encourage local providers to offer GA members deeply discounted services. We also aim to test high deductible insurance plans and health savings accounts.
