Yes. Medicare has paid for professional healthcare navigation (Principal Illness Navigation and Community Health Integration services) since January 2024. Part B covers about 80% and a Medigap plan typically covers the rest, so most members in Island County pay $0. We confirm your exact coverage before your first session, and there are no surprise bills.

Per CMS enrollment data for 2025, Island County had 26,962 Medicare beneficiaries: 11,166 on Medicare Advantage plans (41.4%) and 15,796 on Original Medicare, with about 1,953 dual-eligible for both Medicare and Apple Health (Washington Medicaid). Understood Care advocates work with both: Original Medicare members usually pay $0 through Part B plus a supplement, and we confirm Medicare Advantage coverage plan by plan before any work begins.

Per the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey, about 3,099 of Oak Harbor's 24,396 residents are 65 or older (12.7%), within a county of roughly 22,640 seniors (Island County). Most become Medicare-eligible at 65, and every one of them has the same federal benefits an advocate helps put to work.

No. Understood Care is fully virtual, delivered by phone, video, and secure messaging, so it works the same in Oak Harbor as anywhere else in Washington's 39 counties. If leaving home is hard, that is exactly the situation the service is built for.

Advocates work virtually and are matched to you, not to a zip code. You get one dedicated advocate with their direct phone, email, and text (One Advocate, For Life), and they work with Washington's programs, the state's flexible Medigap switching (after 90 days on a policy you can move to an equal-or-lesser-benefit plan at any time of year, from any insurer, with no medical underwriting, though Washington does not require insurers to offer Medigap to under-65 disabled beneficiaries), SHIBA counseling (Washington's free Statewide Health Insurance Benefits Advisors program), the Medicare Savings Programs the Health Care Authority runs with an income test and no asset test, and Apple Health's COPES waiver and Community First Choice paid-caregiving path, plus the county and city services that apply in Island County.

Those run through Apple Health (Washington Medicaid), not Medicare. Washington's Community First Choice and COPES waiver are consumer-directed: an eligible person hires and directs their own caregiver, an Individual Provider employed through Consumer Direct Care Network Washington, and that caregiver can be an adult child or another relative, so a person can stay home instead of entering a nursing facility. A spouse generally cannot be paid this way. Families we serve in North Puget Sound use this pathway alongside Medicare. Our advocacy is billed through Medicare, so for dual-eligible families the split works well: you run the caregiving and the Medicaid paperwork, and your parent's advocate handles the Medicare side.

In Washington we are in-network for Original Medicare (traditional fee-for-service Medicare); UnitedHealthcare Medicare Advantage plans (~26% of Washington MA members); Wellcare Medicare Advantage plans (~4% of Washington MA members). Together that covers roughly 65.7% of Washington's Medicare beneficiaries. Market-share data: 2024. Plan networks change, so we confirm exactly what your plan covers before any work begins - no surprise bills.