FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CHARLOTTE, Aug. 5, 2014 – By Redefining Medicaid and saving North Carolina taxpayers $9.3 million, Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Solutions is Redefining Lives for the millions of North Carolinians who struggle with mental health, intellectual and developmental disabilities and substance use/addiction conditions.
Cardinal Innovations Healthcare Solutions, formerly PBH, launched its “Redefining Medicaid. Redefining Lives” campaign Monday in the Charlotte Metro area. The campaign aims to introduce the company and how it assists individuals and their families in addition to promoting the quality of providers in its network.
Cardinal Innovations, a managed care organization, is now responsible for more than $635 million in Medicaid and state funding that supports a system of care for people with mental health, intellectual and developmental disabilities and substance use/addiction conditions in 16 North Carolina counties. The company serves 2.4 million people with the addition of Mecklenburg County’s $200 million contract in April.
“There are so many people in our communities who rely on the public system for their care,” said Cardinal Innovations President and Chief Executive Officer Pam Shipman. “This campaign is helping to tell their stories and how Cardinal Innovations in collaboration with families, providers and key stakeholders has worked over the past 40 years to improve the delivery of services and access to care.”
Cardinal Innovations ensures access to high quality services through a comprehensive network of the best providers across the state. It is a community-focused organization with a history of sustained partnerships with consumers, local stakeholders and elected officials.
Steven Timmons, Cardinal Innovations’ Chief Administrative Officer, said the organization is working to raise awareness about what the company does and how it is helping people while innovating the way North Carolina manages Medicaid services for individuals with mental health, intellectual and development disabilities and substance use/addiction conditions. We have an opportunity to focus on person centered care and how behavioral health is part of treating the whole person.
Cardinal Innovations’ “Redefining Medicaid. Redefining Lives” campaign focuses on the real stories of consumers, providers and employees. For example, employee Kim Roe is a parent whose son has been receiving services for many years. She was hired as a family advocate working in Cardinal Innovations’ Community Partners department about five years ago. She said the company has helped her 14-year-old son Kevin to thrive. Now she’s helping others. She said she remembers one of the first children she supported, a 15-year-old boy who had been in the system since he was six years old.
In her campaign story, Roe talks about how she worked with him to build his skills and confidence so that he is living a more fulfilling life today.
“Roe is one of several people - employees, providers and consumers – whose stories are featured in the campaign. Their stories are the heart of the campaign and help to identify the people assisted by Medicaid. It is how their lives have been redefined that we’ve chosen to highlight on the webpage as well as on local Charlotte Area Transit System buses, digital advertising and on radio ads,” says Kim McMillan, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications.
To experience the campaign, visit http://www.cardinalinnovations.org/redefining/ campaign landing page.
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