Concierge Care Helps Manage a Chronic Health Condition

Joliene Garlich didn’t know much about Crohn’s disease before she was diagnosed, but she knew her symptoms kept her from feeling well and spending quality time with her family. She decided to sign up for concierge care from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield. It gives her a direct connection to her care manager, who leads her care plan, as well as the ability to track her symptoms and locate disease-specific information. People with chronic conditions such as Crohn’s disease, diabetes, long COVID, as well as people with cancer, can also use concierge care to actively participate in their care plan through a digital connection with a care manager.

Concierge care works in a variety of ways to make it easier to manage your health condition through digital technology. You can fill out daily symptom surveys, link data from your weight scale directly to the app, set medication reminders, and earn points for completing daily missions related to water intake, nutrition, exercise, stress management, and smoking cessation. You can also find more information about your condition. What’s most valuable for many people is the daily contact with their care manager.

“The best thing about concierge care is Kelly [Cooper]. She’s my nurse, my personal connection,” Garlich said. “And she just knows almost everything about Crohn’s.” Garlich appreciates being able to reach Cooper through the concierge care app wherever she is — on the run, in the car, at work, or at home.

“Getting answers to my questions from Kelly and from the app has freed me from worrying and having to search online for information, letting me spend more happy time with my family. It’s led to me feeling better, too,” said Garlich. “She’s like my medical mentor.”

“It’s a privilege for me to be able to take care of our members this way,” Cooper said, “through the app, digitally, on a daily basis, sometimes five or six times a day. This is a totally different way of thinking, a different way of doing things.”

While the connection with a care manager may be digital, you are not talking to a robot. The empathy and support come from a real person who can help you understand the situation and offer help when you need it.