Welcome to Our New Care Coordinator

Debi Jefferson

As part of our contract with Cigna, EHP needs to have a care coordinator to help identify patients who have the potential to become “high risk” due to uncontrolled chronic illness. 

The benefits of care coordination include:

• Improved patient outcomes
• Clinical initiatives and care gaps addressed
• Coordination and communication of care with payers
• Meeting payer quality initiatives and financial incentive goals

This position has been handled on a temporary basis by two care coordinators that we were able to borrow from EvergreenHealth Primary Care while we searched for right person to take the job. That person is Debi Jefferson, who joined us Aug. 18. Debi is a veteran nursing professional with more than 20 years of experience helping patients handle chronic illness. She also has valuable familiarity with the insurance side, having designed and implemented health management strategies for a local brokerage.

In the role of care coordinator, Debi will serve as your central link for organization of care and services, working closely with the Cigna care coordinators to roll out resources to patients.  Using information from Cigna patient reports, Debi will identify the high-risk patients – typically those with uncontrolled diabetes, hypertension, depression and asthma or patients re-hospitalized within 30 days. She’ll also look to identify patients who fall into the so-called “care gap” – someone who hasn’t had a BMI in past year, or is over 50 and not had a colonoscopy, or a diabetic who hasn’t been seen in 9 months. Debi will then meet with the clinic team to discuss the reports and develop process to address the patient needs. 

You can contact Debi Jefferson at 425.899.2631 or by email at dajefferson@evergreenhealth.com.