WellCare of New York is one of the fastest growing and highest rated health care providers in the state, and they are doing it by combining a large national presence with a community-oriented approach designed to offer the best service to its customers.
Since 2002, WellCare of New York has seen its membership in programs including Medicaid, Medicare, Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus increase by more than 450 percent.
“We’ve mainly grown by developing strong relationships in specific neighborhoods,” said Daniel Parietti, President of WellCare of New York. “We partner closely with doctor groups and community groups, and we have very strong local relationships that help us grow in specific communities.”
The company’s New York operations include areas in the Hudson Valley as well as Rochester, but most of their customers are located within New York City and the four boroughs except for Staten Island. In addition, WellCare has focused much of its efforts on Queens, already bringing its message to communities such as Jackson Heights, Corona, Elmhurst, Ridgewood, Ozone Park and the Rockaways, with plans in the works to expand further in other parts of the borough.
“We’re not the traditional health insurance company where you’ll see a lot of advertising; we are community-based,” said Frank Pistone, Vice President of Medicare Sales for WellCare of New York. “You’ll see us at a lot of events within the community working with local community leaders and politicians to help get our message out.”
Enrollment numbers show this method is working.
Pistone said that in the past two and a half years since he started in Medicare sales they have become a major player in the Medicare market.
During that period, Pistone said one of the main objectives was to develop plans geared towards low-income seniors and offer them several different options that can fit their individual needs.
“We build good products especially those that low-income seniors need, and then present the plans in a way so we reach that population,” Pistone said.
One of the ways that WellCare brings their plans to the community members is by having an RV with representatives from the company go into the communities they are targeting and meet with potential and existing customers.
“[We use the RV’s] as a vehicle for enrollment and for customer service,” said Meghan Izzo, Director of Medicare Sales. “If people have any questions or any problems, we’re going to be there and answer any of their questions.”
In fact, Izzo said WellCare wants to go further than many of their competitors by offering more services to its customers.
“We want to go beyond giving them the medical services that they need; we want to offer things like our prepaid pharmacy card so they can go into their local pharmacy and get Tylenol, Band-Aids, tissues and anything to help with their quality of life,” she said.
Parietti echoed Izzo’s sentiments.
“We just don’t want to enroll people, we are a constant point of contact in the community to help them learn about the products,” he said.
Oftentimes, WellCare representatives will work with community leaders to organize events inside specific neighborhoods where they can interact with their clients on a one-on-one basis providing a personal touch that many seniors appreciate.
Although WellCare has experienced steady growth since 2002, last year when the federal government rolled out its new Part D Prescription Drug Plan health plan, companies were faced with a new set of responsibilities - informing their customers about all of the different options and deadlines associated with the new plans.
“Last year so many companies got involved that there was perceived to be too much choice,” Parietti said. “A lot of that concern has died down and seniors have gotten familiar with it. We are actually enjoying a lessening of challenges and confusion.”
Another important advantage that WellCare has over many of its competitors, and an area that is particularly important for Queens, is that the company has focused a lot of attention on the diversity in its staff. Currently, many of the company’s sales and orientation representatives speak different languages and dialects, which allow them to serve their communities even better.
“We have probably embraced diversity as well as or better than any of our competitors, and we are proud of that,” Parietti said.
WellCare has already done and continues to do a great deal of work with the Hispanic communities throughout the borough, and they are in the process of working with the Chinese community in Flushing. In addition, they plan to begin concentrating efforts and working with the Korean community in the area shortly, according to Pistone.
Parietti also said that the company’s mission as well as its growth has also attracted many new qualified people to work at WellCare.
“We are a new player in this field so when we were small people heard about us,” he said. “A lot of hospital organizations and other health care organizations heard about our energetic culture, and we attracted a lot of energetic people to work here.”
Parietti said that he expects the company to continue with the same level of growth it has experienced throughout the past few years, and he credits that a number of factors play a role in that growth.
“We have a small-company feel where we really focus in on our customer-specific neighborhoods and try to do the best that we can for them in a very hands-on, customer service-oriented way,” Parietti said. “But, what’s really nice about us is that we are an enormous national company.”
WellCare, which was founded in 1985 and currently has its national headquarters in Tampa, Florida, currently has 3,000 associates, more than 25,000 physician partners and 60,000 pharmacies that serve more than 2 million members in all 50 states throughout the country, and Parietti said he can call on its customer service department whenever he needs assistance.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” he said.
