Published 06 Jul 2020
Geelong-based health insurer GMHBA has been providing additional support to their most vulnerable members during COVID-19 through check in phone calls and hand delivering care packages.
GMHBA’s Care Coordination Service (CCS) traditionally organises care for members who have complicated health problems, to provide support, information and access to health services at no cost.
Over the past few months with restrictions being in place, the CCS has been expanded as part of GMHBA’s member response to COVID-19. The expansion has seen CCS team members making contact with GMHBA members who may be elderly or live alone, to check in and offer to provide ongoing phone calls and assistance.
Staff from GMHBA’s Eye Care and Dental Care practices were deployed to support the CCS expansion while operations at the practices were scaled back to provide only urgent care during the pandemic.
As well as the check in phone calls, the team have been hand delivering care packs to local Geelong members as an extra measure of helping them to keep healthy while they are staying at home more often. The care packs included a morning tea from Café PALAT in Geelong, GMHBA toothbrush, lens spray, hand sanitiser, sunscreen and information packs about how to look after your wellbeing at home.
GMHBA General Manager of Health, People and Community, Dr Sarah Leach, said this initiative strongly aligns with the organisation’s commitment to supporting the health of the community.
“Now more than ever, GMHBA is here for our members. A lot has changed in the world over the past few months and we’ve been required to shift our focus to ensure we offer support and care to our members in new and different ways,” Dr Leach said.
“We’ve received feedback from our members about how grateful they have been for the check in calls and how they feel they can really trust GMHBA for their care.”
More than 200 GMHBA members have been contacted as part of the program, with more than half of those members taking up the offer of ongoing support phone calls from the team.
While COVID-19 restrictions are starting to slowly be lifted, GMHBA is committed to keeping contact with these members and providing any additional support where possible.
