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 Thurston County pay $0. We confirm your exact coverage before your first session, and there are no surprise bills.

Per CMS enrollment data for 2025, Thurston County had 69,506 Medicare beneficiaries: 36,481 on Medicare Advantage plans (52.5%) and 33,024 on Original Medicare, with about 9,224 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 3,955 of Tumwater's 26,519 residents are 65 or older (14.9%), within a county of roughly 54,324 seniors (Thurston County). Most become Medicare-eligible at 65, and every one of them has the same federal benefits an advocate helps put to work.

Per CMS Timely & Effective Care data (period ending 09/30/2025), the median ER visit at Providence St. Peter Hospital runs about 212 minutes, and local hospitals range 140 to 212 minutes; Washington's statewide median is 167 minutes. An advocate cannot shorten an ER line, but avoiding the ER for non-emergencies is advocate work: same-week appointments, urgent-care routing, and follow-up coordination.

No. Understood Care is fully virtual, delivered by phone, video, and secure messaging, so it works the same in Tumwater 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 Thurston 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 Olympia & the Kitsap Peninsula 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.