We were visited by Colene Vivian, President of the N. Winnebago club. She is also charged with the district newsletter. Colene is Communications Director for Oak Street Health which was founded in 2012 by area physicians. Their organization came about when they noticed that their is a large group of seniors making multiple visits to emergency rooms for the same issues. The reason is that they are without primary care physicians. So, Oak Street Health was founded to meet that need. You must be on Medicare to be a patient with them and Colene said transportation to their facility can be covered by either Medicare or the patient's supplement. She said doctors are capped at a max of 800 patients versus a traditional primary care physician who sees anywhere from 2,000 - 3,000. Currently, they do have laboratories available but not some diagnostic screening such as X-rays. Thanks, Colene, for visiting and telling us about this new group of health care providers.
