Need help figuring out healthcare? This company says they can help

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — A company that wants to help residents of American Samoa — especially those at the village level with limited education — identify and assist in getting the healthcare they need, is setting up shop in the Territory. CEO Dan McDonald was in the territory last week for a meeting with the LBJ Medical Center Board of Directors as to his company’s viability.

In an interview with Samoa News, McDonald said that 86Boarders was founded in Atlanta, Georgia, and has developed their proprietary technology platform and care coordination services to connect, educate and engage the inactive, unable to reach and underserved members of a community.

He explained that his company has elected to focus all its efforts on the Medicaid population and its the reason he has opted to establish an office in the Territory — because every resident of American Samoa by statute is a member of Medicaid.

According to 86Boarders CEO McDonald, some of these people who have chronic health conditions or are in danger of developing serious health complications, will more often than not, ignore health care benefits they are eligible for because of the many requirements the system demands.

“So rather than struggling to understand these seemingly complex requirements and access the healthcare services they need, they don’t do it and then their health condition goes from bad to worse; and then they go to the Emergency Room because that’s the only thing they can do.

“Our job is to intervene early and get people to understand why preventative medicine is so important.

“For those people with chronic conditions, we’re going to do outreach programs to get them to a regular cadence of healthcare to manage those chronic conditions like diabetes and other health complications which cause heart disease.”

He stated that they will be focusing on two cohorts of people — the ones that have multiple chronic conditions or complex care patients and everybody else.

McDonald pointed out that to do the outreach to the entire island, they will be setting up a branch in American Samoa and they will be initially hiring 3 to 5 care managers in late January, tentatively, who will be sent to the States for training.

Upon their return, they will manage the local office which he hopes to staff with another 30 local employees before the official launching on July 1st, 2024 and by the end of the year, McDonald said that he hopes to hire somewhere between 60 to 100 local employees.

They will be doing the outreach by communicating with people by telephone or the various social media outlets whichever the patient prefers.

“We will connect with them, establish a trusted relationship, find out what barriers they have to good health which we will try to minimize, and then we will connect them with the appropriate medical services they need, whether it’s an annual physical, eye exam, diabetes checkup, breast cancer screening, vaccinations and so forth,” McDonald explained.

“Having earned their trust, when we start to talk about different medical treatments and healthcare patterns that they need, then they’ll more likely to listen to us and we can follow up on their treatment, remind them of their appointments, get them scheduled and make sure they have transportation.”

He stated that they secure vans that will be sent to different parts of the island to pick people up and take them to their appointments and take them back home afterwards.

“Transportation is a barrier, and other barriers like food, housing and even education insecurity have become known as the social determinants of health,” he revealed.

“If you’re not well educated and you don’t understand the complexities of the healthcare system, we’re there to help you.

“We will help educate you about the system, how to better utilize the system, how to get your health back on track so that you can have a more healthier and successful long term life.”

The 86Borders CEO also clarified that these services offered by their company are geared towards the entire population of the island.

However, he pointed out that their services would no doubt be a big help for people at the village level who are not aware they are in danger of developing chronic health conditions.

“We will reach out to everyone and get data from them by discussing what health conditions currently exists for them and their family members and we will take appropriate action to get them scheduled with doctors to get them on the path to better health,” McDonald stated.

“We also serve as an educational component because a lot of times, people don’t understand why they need to have their health checked up regularly.

“So we act as an education forum for them to help them understand why.”

When asked about people who were not born in American Samoa and are not eligible for Medicaid services, he stated that he understood that those people make up a fairly sizable portion of the population and he hasn’t been able to define everything yet.

However, McDonald pointed out that everyone on the island, whether they are a Native American Samoan or not, is covered by Medicaid if they present to the Emergency Room first.

“By statute, LBJ Tropical Medical Center is the only provider of last resort here, so Medicaid pays for everyone who has to go to LBJ for that episode of care,” he explained.

“That doesn’t really address what we’re going to be doing.

“So that is something that will be determined by our client which is LBJ.”

McDonald said that he had told the LBJ Board in their meeting when they had asked him why he wanted to do this that the population represented here is exactly the population they serve in the States and he thinks he can make a difference.

“It all goes back to engagement and getting the people to enter into a trusted relationship where they can trust the advice and direction they are given and do those things that the medical professionals tell us should be done,” he concluded.