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The first store will open Thursday in Kill Devil Hills, with additional outlets planned for Rocky Mount, Elizabeth City, Greenville, Wilson and Goldsboro by the end of 2024.

Wawa in NC: 10 stores by end of 2024; 🥨 90 stores in 10 years

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Social determinants of health are defined as a set of environmental and community factors that influence health and well-being. Many of these, like food insecurity, are pervasive problems within North Carolina, affecting thousands of families every day.

Social factors have a significant impact on health and well-being

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For Medicaid beneficiaries, redetermination is an important process that reviews and verifies their eligibility for coverage. While redetermination has not occurred since 2020 when the public health emergency was declared, beneficiaries should start preparing for once redetermination is required again. 

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From an early age, visiting your doctor and well-child visits can instill healthy habits that last a lifetime. With a focus on preventative care and screening, doctors' visits ensure that patients stay healthy and can reduce the likelihood of serious illnesses.

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Visit your doctor and establish lifelong healthy habits

Wellcare:Spotlight:Article4

Through its Welcome Room program, WellCare of NC is committed to expanding in-person access to valuable resources and education for Medicaid beneficiaries. Already piloted with success in other states, North Carolina is the next for this innovative member resource.


WellCare of NC creates welcoming environments for Medicaid beneficiaries

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Throughout a child's early life, parents will want to ensure they receive all recommended vaccinations. This will help protect them from potentially serious illnesses and help establish a foundation for a healthy life. 

Childhood vaccinations build the foundation for a healthy life

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when you are a new parent, there's a lot to think about including making sure your child sees their physician on a regular basis. I'm at wellcare. Talking with Michelle Minton, the Director of quality and Michelle young babies, they're still building up their immunities. So they really need to make sure that they are in the care of a primary care physician. Don't. That's right. So once we have newborns, what we recommend to the Parents is that they establish care with a primary care provider and that they start receiving their immunizations on schedule. So for newborns, there's a typical immunization cadence. Um, providers normally like to give immunizations at two months, four months, six months, nine months, 12 months between 15 and 18 months and then at 24 months. So quite a few immunizations that Children need, they need to receive about 10 different immunizations during that timeframe. And many of those immunizations have their own uh number within the series. So some of them may only require one, some of them, three or four different immunizations at different times. So really important that they establish care so that they can help prevent disease, um, and continue to build their immunity. And when you have that established relationship, the primary care provider will make sure that the child is getting these things on a regular basis. Right. That's exactly right. Something else that we've seen with Covid is some vaccine. Hesitancy that we recommend that uh as families start to get back out there and see their primary care doctors again, um that they establish a new schedule. The PCP can help get get back up so we want to see the babies get caught back up so that they're on schedule. Again. Another thing with these immunizations is that they are required for school so whether that the preschool daycare elementary school, those immunizations are gonna be required. So we want to make sure there are. How does a parent choose a primary care provider? What we recommend is that patients choose a doctor that they can trust and that they can develop a plan for care for their child. Michelle, thank you so much. Thank you. You can learn a whole lot more about immunizations and choosing a child care provider by visiting the websites on your screen. The C. D. C. As well as the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Wellcare of NC:Spotlight:Wellcare Child Immunizations 

Through its Welcome Room program, WellCare of NC is committed to expanding in-person access to valuable resources and education for Medicaid beneficiaries. Already piloted with success in other states, North Carolina is the next for this innovative member resource.

This article is written for our sponsor, {{a href="external_link-20619825"}}WellCare of NC{{/a}}.

In North Carolina, over 2.3 million beneficiaries rely on Medicaid for essential services that improve their health and overall well-being. While most of these beneficiaries are from low-income families, medically fragile children, individuals with mental illnesses, and people in adult care facilities also rely on this government programming.

While Medicaid continues to try and improve healthcare access, many beneficiaries still face obstacles when accessing the care and support services they need. Seeing this challenge, WellCare of NC has established "Welcome Rooms" to provide needed support and assistance to Medicaid beneficiaries.

The rooms provide access to education, resources, and advocates who are experienced in assisting with healthcare needs. More importantly, Welcome Rooms are designed to be a comfortable and welcoming environment where members can go for help with their benefits, get referrals to social programs, and receive support with other healthcare needs.

"If [a member] has issues with their claims, we have experienced team members on site who can help them with these types of issues," said Jasmine Smith, Manager of Community Engagement at WellCare of NC. "Healthcare can be so complicated, and calling an 800 number is not ideal when talking about something as confidential as your healthcare needs. Hopefully, these Welcome Rooms will offer help and a friend who can assist them with their needs," added Smith.

With just one convenient stop, beneficiaries can receive a consultation to understand their benefits, apply for and receive ID replacements and get information on and referral to vital social programming. While it’s incredibly important that these rooms offer one-on-one consultation with experts, there is another purpose to Welcome Rooms, to create community. Members can come in for something as simple as a cup of coffee or a snack.

WellCare of NC understands holistic health is bigger than routine exams or vaccines. It’s about making a person know that they are valued and helping them understand that there is a myriad of services and organizations that may be able to provide services.

"In addition to educating members, we partner with nonprofits. We know nonprofits are really the crux of our society. Our members utilize things like food pantries and clothing banks or different organizations that provide different services. We think it's essential to invest in and partner with those nonprofits because they are essential to supporting our members and assisting with these social needs," said Smith.

There are plans to increase the number of resources for members even further. "We are looking to do healthy cooking classes, new mom training, and other types of programming," said Smith.

WellCare has Welcome Rooms in six locations across North Carolina, focused in areas with a large volume of Medicaid beneficiaries and on public transit routes.

Welcome Rooms serve as a valuable resource, open to all WellCare members. The Welcome Rooms are ADA accessible, and there is video remote interpreting.

The Welcome Room concept has already appeared in other states with significant success. "The Florida plan has around 13 Welcome Rooms, and they are so well received. Florida is an example for all of our plans across the country, and we have connected with them to get some best practices and advice. We are tailoring some of what we are doing in North Carolina with the Welcome Room program in Florida," said Smith.

The Welcome Rooms are just one example of how WellCare of NC is committed to providing quality healthcare for North Carolinians. Through the use of these rooms, WellCare can connect with members personally and provide the support that is essential to managing health and well-being. By offering education, resources, and advocates dedicated to helping members with their healthcare needs, WellCare can provide a high level of care that is accessible and welcoming to all.

This article is written for our sponsor, {{a href="external_link-20619825"}}WellCare of NC{{/a}}.