A chain of medical clinics that specialize in treating older patients, often with low incomes and multiple chronic health conditions, is coming to five locations across the Triad.

ChenMed confirmed Monday that it plans to open in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, and Burlington, as well as Charlotte and Fayetteville. ChenMed takes part in the Medicare Advantage program, with Medicare paying a fixed amount each month for patients enrolled in Medicare Advantage Plans....

The company makes money by holding down costs, largely through avoiding costly hospitalizations and emergency-room visits, E.W. Tibbs, the company's regional vice president for dedicated medical centers in the Carolinas and Georgia, explained in a telephone interview with the Triad Business Journal. By seeing fewer patients but seeing them more often, ChenMed helps avoid costly hospitalizations and emergency-room visits. Its caregivers can see a patient 40 to 50 times for the cost of one emergency room visit, Tibbs said.

"We want to invest upfront and find out what's going on with that person, detect and manage

what we call high risk diseases," Tibbs said.

"We take full risk, meaning that if it takes more dollars to take care of the senior than the insurance company provides us, we lose a little. If we have a little leftover after providing all their care, we make a little."

Each clinic is staffed by one or two primary-care physicians, each with a team of three or four caregivers. There are also non-physician center directors and salespeople, for about 30 people in all when fully operating, Tibbs said. Specialists are available, and patients and their physicians are free to choose hospitals if needed, he added. Read Full Article.