Humana Cares Celebrates 1-Year Milestone on Tampa Bay Medical News

Humana Cares Celebrates 1-Year Milestone

By: LYNNE JETER

L-R: The Children's Cancer Center: Cyndi Sexton; Jeffrey Fishman; Jamie Nettles; Susie Wortham; Nicki Pajak; Kyleen Slater, Cindy Ulvenes; Shannon Hannon Oliviero; Pete Bennett; Tyler Freriks; accept the 2009 Humana Tampa Bay Benefits $100,000 grant.

Division to Add 50 Jobs in 1Q10

ST. PETERSBURG—Humana Cares, the St. Petersburg-based division of Humana, Inc. (NYSE: HUM), marks an important milestone at the end of January with the celebration of the end of its first year of operation at a 35,000-square-foot service center in Carillon Business Park.

Humana Cares, which provides integrated complex care management to primarily chronically ill Humana Medicare Advantage members across the country with complex health issues—such as diabetes, congestive heart failure and cancer—reported significant first-year growth in the Tampa Bay area.

Among the highlights:

The national care center in St. Petersburg employs approximately 310 associates and has plans to expand its on-site staff to more than 360 during the first quarter of 2010. That includes hiring more than 50 referral specialists, nurses, community health educators, healthcare managers and other healthcare professionals. By comparison, when Humana formed the new St. Petersburg-based care management division in the fall of 2008, it had less than 200 associates.
Humana Cares now provides complex care management telephonically to more than 30,000 Humana Medicare Advantage members nationally, and will be adding another 16,500 Humana members in 2010's first quarter.
Humana Cares has expanded its on-the-ground assessments and care management through field care managers to more than 14,000 Humana Medicare Advantage members in 20 states, including New Mexico, Utah, Texas, Louisiana and Wisconsin.
Humana Cares is also broadening its business base. The program in 2010 will not only provide personalized chronic care management to Medicare Advantage members, but will also coordinate care for dual-eligible (Medicare-Medicaid) members, Group Medicare members (retirees whose Medicare is provided by their former employer), Medicare Special Needs Program members (diabetes) and specialty condition management for commercial groups.
Since the Humana Cares center's opening at Carillon in early 2009, the chronic care management program has posted these positive annual trends:
- A 35 percent reduction in inpatient hospital admissions, with a 5 percent drop in hospital length of stay;
- A 22 percent decline in emergency room cases; and,
- A 20 percent drop in medical claims.

At a ceremony last fall celebrating its 2009 Tampa Bay Benefits charitable giving program, Humana awarded a $100,000 signature grant to the Children’s Cancer Center.

“This grant from Humana will enable the Children’s Cancer Center to provide increased services and support to those Tampa Bay families who need our assistance, those who have moved into survivorship and its many challenges, and finally, those who can’t make the journey to our facility,” said Shannon Hannon-Oliviero, director of community relations for Children’s Cancer Center. “This grant expands our boundaries, and helps us provide additional outreach services to the community.”

The event marked the fourth consecutive year that Humana has awarded a $100,000 grant to an area nonprofit organization “working to improve the quality of life for people in the Tampa Bay community through its work in the areas of mind, body and spirit.”

This year, Humana received some 115 applications from area nonprofit groups and charitable organizations seeking the Tampa Bay Benefits $100,000 signature grant. A panel of community leaders evaluated the grant applications and selected the $100,000 grant recipient from three grant finalists –Tampa Metropolitan Area YMCA, The Ophelia Project and Boys Initiative, and Children’s Cancer Center. (The runners-up each received a $10,000 grant.)

“These are difficult times for many nonprofit organizations in our Tampa Bay community,” said Sid Morgan, commercial operations market president for Humana Central Florida. “Humana is a major part of this community, so we’re pleased that through our Tampa Bay Benefits grant program, we can help make life a little better for families who’ve been touched by cancer.”

Established in 1974 by founders who believed the entire family is diagnosed with cancer and not just the child, Children’s Cancer Center has played an even more pivotal role in the community since the closure of the pediatric program at Moffitt Cancer Center in 1995, when the Children’s Cancer Center Board of Directors approved expanding services to all children receiving treatment for cancer or chronic blood disorders in the Tampa Bay area. Programs and services address the needs of all family members at no charge.

Scott Latimer, MD, co-chair of Humana 2009 Tampa Bay Benefits and president of the company’s Central and North Florida Senior Products Market, said many families in Tampa Bay haven’t been able to take advantage of the Children’s Cancer Center’s services because of extended illness or transportation issues.

“With this grant,” he said, “the Children’s Cancer Center (can) reach out to those families most in need.”