Errol Pierre

And so these were all things that we brought to the table in the height of COVID to make sure that our patients were taken care of, even though they couldn't physically see a doctor.

We tried to wrap things around them.

Great question.

So during the pandemic, if you used a phone book to find a food pantry, you might have to call five or six places to find one that was actually open at the height of COVID.

So we worked with an organization called NowPow

that has a digital online directory for social services.

So whether it's food or rent or domestic violence, any need that has nothing to do with healthcare, it's more of the social determinants of health that impact health, any need that someone had, we were not only working with NowPow to update the list so that everything in their online directory was updated so we knew which

Social service entities were open during COVID, but we were also trying to find gaps.

So, for example, if there was not enough food in a certain zip code based on our assessment, we found food deserts in communities that we were servicing, then we would find those gaps and then work with NowPow to find community-based organizations to add to NowPow.

Our philosophy is we say digital first.

Digital first doesn't mean digital only.

We know many of our low-income members, our most vulnerable members on Medicaid, still have a smartphone.

So while we're pursuing a digital approach, we always have an avenue for in-person partnership.

But on the digital side, I'll give you an example.

Our marketing team was using text messages to tell members where vaccination sites were.

to ask members if they wanted a vaccination, and we would actually schedule it on their behalf.

We were doing that through the digital means.

Now, the non-digital means was we were consistently in communities once COVID started to open up a little bit,

We were consistently in communities where their hurt was the most and where the need was the most, providing education with different partnerships and different providers.

We were giving COVID education seminars.