Personal guides help seniors navigate the healthcare maze
PHOENIX - It is a real human's helping hand, not an AI agent, helping seniors navigate the healthcare system.
Local perspective:
Aging has come with challenges for 77-year-old Carol Colborn. She is the caretaker of her husband with Alzheimer's and was diagnosed with cancer herself just last year.
"I thought we were going to go to an assisted living facility last year because how could I take care of him, even with cancer and all my treatments?" Colborn said. "He can't drive anymore and I can't drive."
A Helping Hand:
That is when she discovered EZ Health, a company that pairs seniors with a personal guide to navigate the healthcare maze.
"We give you a dedicated one-on-one guide that you speak to on the phone and that guide is going to be taking care of everything for you," Artem Petakov, CEO of EZ Health, said. "This is zip code by zip code. What's the best care? What's the applications to be filled out?"
How They Help:
The company is helping seniors figure everything out from transportation, to meal delivery, to which doctor to see.
"It is a game changer. They helped me. In a few months they helped me in four ways," Colborn said.
Through EZ Health, Colborn and her husband have been able to get improvements made to their home and register in a transportation program, saving them hundreds of dollars in ride-share costs.
"It just liberated us. We're no longer prisoners of our own home," Colborn said.
Bridging the Gap:
Covered by Medicare, EZ Better Health aims to bring efficiency to getting care, closing the technology gap between seniors and today's healthcare system.
"So a lot of them honestly give up, either give up or get suboptimal care. Both of those lead people to not get good care, not be able to age independently and in their own home," Petakov said.
"The community has all the resources we need. Somebody just needs to help bridge the gap," Colborn said.
Dig deeper:
The service aims to ensure these years are truly golden for seniors.
"Wow is the right word. It changed our whole life," Colborn said.
The Source: Information in this report was gathered from Carol Colborn, a 77-year-old senior and caretaker; Artem Petakov, a representative of E-Z Health; and FOX 10 reporter Annalisa Pardo.