From the outside, the healthcare system can seem confusing, even foreboding, especially for patients with complex health issues and limited incomes. Trying to navigate the many complicated variables toward getting well can be overwhelming, and costly, not just to the patients, but to their individual communities as well.
Based in Greenville, N.C., Access East, Inc. has made its mission in helping to tie many of those loose ends together, for patients, and for healthcare providers. We address the different components of patient care not as separate concerns, but as parts of a greater whole. Think of it as whole-person care, a better, more-efficient path to patient-health improvement – and not coincidentally, it typically adds up to financial savings for patients, and their communities, as well.
At Access East, our passion for improving the health of Eastern North Carolina goes far beyond the professional; our stake here is personal. This uncommon region, with all of its many challenges, is our home.
For 20 years, we have been providing comprehensive care management to many of our ENC neighbors who need it most, along with cost-saving practice support to the primary-care and specialty providers who treat them. The 27 mostly rural counties we cover include some our state's most medically complex and at-risk populations, from Medicaid and dual-eligible patients to those without insurance
Our 5013(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation blossomed out of a series of collaborations and partnerships between healthcare organizations devoted to coordinating access to quality care for our region's most vulnerable, including the chronically ill, the indigent, the underinsured and the uninsured, with the express goal of improving patient health outcomes and controlling healthcare costs.
Our many dedicated partners include more than 250 primary-care practices across our 27-county service area: Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), community health centers, health departments, safety-net and social service organizations, and hospitals, including the region's largest, Vidant Medical Center, in conjunction with the East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine, both in Greenville.
We achieve our collaborative community-health objectives through four main business lines that together comprise an annual budget of more than $17 million. Our funding comes from the North Carolina Division of Health Benefits (NCDHB), plus multiple private charitable organizations and foundations, and individual donations.
Our Principal Service Lines
• Access East Care Management
Our largest service line, providing coordinated cost-effective care to more than 190,000 Medicaid enrollees across 27 eastern North Carolina counties, through a network of patient-centered medical homes. In tandem with our partners at Vidant Health, we also serve 40,000 Medicare beneficiaries, and a total of 29 counties.
• HealthAssist
An integrated, coordinated system of donated or reduced-fee healthcare services low-income, uninsured residents of Pitt, Greene, and Beaufort counties.
• ACA Navigators
Our grant-funded Certified Marketplace Navigators provide no-cost assistance to consumers seeking health-coverage options through the state's federally funded Healthcare Insurance Marketplace.