Keeping up with doctor’s appointments is essential to managing health and staying informed, but it can often feel overwhelming. From scheduling and transportation to understanding medical advice and ensuring proper follow-up, there are many details to manage. This is where Understood Care can help. Our advocates serve as trusted guides, working alongside you or your loved one to make the process easier, more organized, and more comfortable.
Personalized Support Before and After Every Appointment
Understood Care advocates provide hands-on help with all aspects of medical visits. We help you schedule appointments, confirm provider information, and prepare for the visit itself. This might include reviewing your questions ahead of time, making sure prescriptions are current, or gathering any medical records needed. After the appointment, we help you understand the doctor’s recommendations and take the right steps to follow through on care instructions, referrals, or additional tests.
A Partner to Help You Understand Your Care
Medical visits can involve unfamiliar language, new diagnoses, or complex treatment plans. Your advocate is there to help translate this information into clear, understandable terms. We make sure you feel confident about what was discussed during the visit and that you know what actions to take next. If something is unclear or left unanswered, your advocate can follow up with your provider to get the information you need.
Coordination Across Your Care Team
Many people receive care from more than one doctor. Your advocate helps ensure that your care is well coordinated across primary care providers, specialists, and other professionals. We help share information between offices, keep records consistent, and make sure appointments align with your overall care goals. This reduces confusion and helps prevent important details from being overlooked.
Support for Getting to and From the Appointment
Transportation should never be the reason you miss a doctor’s visit. Your advocate helps you arrange reliable ways to get to and from appointments. Whether that means booking a ride service, coordinating with a caregiver, or finding community transportation resources, we make sure you have safe and timely access to care. We also consider mobility needs, language assistance, and other accessibility factors to support your comfort and safety.
Emotional and Practical Support Throughout
Doctor’s visits can bring up feelings of stress, uncertainty, or fatigue, especially when managing long-term conditions or complex health needs. Understood Care advocates are here to offer steady support throughout the experience. We are here to listen, provide encouragement, and help you make informed decisions without feeling overwhelmed.
Confidence in Every Step of the Journey
With Understood Care, you are never alone in managing your medical appointments. From the moment you schedule your visit to the follow-up that comes afterward, your advocate is there to help you stay organized, prepared, and empowered. We make it easier to stay connected to the care you need and to move forward with confidence.
What to expect from your first conversation
Your first step with Understood Care is a welcome call with one of our medical doctors or nurse practitioners. In that call, we listen to what is going on, review your goals, and note any urgent needs. After this visit, we match you with a dedicated care advocate whose background fits your situation. Many of our advocates have worked in healthcare for ten years or more. Your doctor or nurse practitioner can also schedule a follow up call to reassess needs and decide what additional support or services would help. You meet a clinician first, then we introduce the right advocate, then we follow up together so your care plan keeps moving forward.
How our team works together for you
Your clinician partner
Our doctors and nurse practitioners guide clinical decisions, help you understand options, and coordinate with your existing primary care and specialists. They can review medicines, order appropriate follow up when needed, and communicate key information to your broader care team so everyone is on the same page.
Your care advocate
Your advocate is your day to day partner. They prepare you for visits, help with records and instructions, arrange transportation, and check on next steps after appointments. They also connect you to community resources and financial help that fit your needs. Think of your advocate as a skilled guide who clears obstacles and keeps the plan on track.
You at the center
Everything we do is built around your preferences, goals, and values. That means we capture what matters to you, share it with the right people at the right time, and use it to guide safe, appropriate, and effective care. When something changes, we adjust the plan with you.
Step by step: the typical Understood Care pathway
- Welcome call with a medical doctor or nurse practitioner to understand your needs
- Matching with an advocate who fits your situation and preferences
- Care plan setup that includes appointments, records, and clear next steps
- Follow up call with your original doctor or nurse practitioner when needed to reassess and refine the plan
- Ongoing check ins with your advocate to remove barriers such as transportation, costs, or paperwork
- Review of progress and updates sent to your primary care and specialists with your permission
Services we coordinate and how they help
Appointments and preparation
We help you schedule visits, gather records, and prepare questions so you feel confident and in control. See how we support visits here
Transportation
If getting to the clinic is hard, we arrange reliable rides that match your mobility needs and budget. Start here
Second opinions
When you want another clinical perspective, we help you find in network specialists, collect records, and set up the visit. Learn more
Medication access and costs
We review coverage, search savings programs, and coordinate with your prescribers so you can afford and safely take your medicines. Explore support
Care coordination
We keep an organized snapshot of your diagnoses, medicines, goals, and care preferences, and we share updates with your permission so your team works from the same playbook. Read about our approach
Applications and financial help
We guide applications for programs that may lower premiums, reduce co pays, or provide assistance with medical bills and services. Get help
You can also explore an overview of financial support options
https://understoodcare.com/healthcare-info/financial-help
Social and community support
We connect you with food, housing, peer groups, caregiver support, and local programs that make daily life easier.
Why this model works
Care coordination is most effective when it deliberately organizes activities, shares the right information at the right time, and centers your needs and preferences. That team based approach improves safety, appropriateness, and follow through. Patient navigation is an evidence based method for reducing barriers to care. It has a strong track record across settings for improving access to timely screening and treatment, especially when people face complex challenges such as transportation, cost, language, or multiple conditions. Telehealth adds convenience and can strengthen communication among you and your clinicians, especially when travel is difficult. Our model builds on these principles so you receive the right care, at the right time, with less stress.
How Medicare coverage may apply
Many people receive navigation and coordination through Medicare supported services such as Community Health Integration and Principal Illness Navigation. These services recognize the value of addressing health related social needs and helping people with serious or high risk conditions move through the system. Coverage depends on your plan and location. If costs apply, we review them with you before your first session and never send surprise bills. For details about coverage at Understood Care, visit
https://understoodcare.com/care-types/lower-costs-of-medication
Privacy and consent
Your privacy matters. We discuss what information to share and with whom. We obtain your consent and document it. You can change sharing choices at any time.
How to get started today
You can book a dedicated time with an advocate
https://understoodcare.com/care-types/appointments
or sign up directly in our intake portal
https://app.understoodcare.com
If you prefer, call us and we will schedule the first available time that fits your needs. We would be honored to support you.
Frequently asked questions
Do I still need my primary care doctor
Yes. We partner with your existing clinicians and keep them informed with your permission. Our clinicians and advocates complement your primary care, they do not replace it.
Can I use Understood Care if I have multiple conditions
Yes. Many people come to us with several diagnoses, many medicines, or frequent appointments. Coordinating across conditions is a core part of what we do.
What if I am not sure which service I need first
Start with the welcome call. We will help you prioritize. If a second opinion, transportation, or cost concern turns out to be the first barrier, we will focus there and adjust as your needs change.
References
- AHRQ. Care Coordination overview. https://www.ahrq.gov/topics/care-coordination.html AHRQ
- AHRQ. What is Care Coordination. https://www.ahrq.gov/ncepcr/care/coordination/atlas/chapter2.html AHRQ
- AHRQ. Designing and Delivering Whole Person Transitional Care, Hospital Guide to Reducing Medicaid Readmissions. https://www.ahrq.gov/patient-safety/settings/hospital/resource/guide/index.html AHRQ
- PubMed. Transitional Care Interventions To Prevent Readmissions for People With Heart Failure, systematic review. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26561706/ PubMed
- National Cancer Institute. Patient navigator definition. https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/patient-navigator Cancer.gov
- President’s Cancer Panel. Enhancing Patient Navigation with Technology, Executive Summary. https://prescancerpanel.cancer.gov/reports-meetings/enhancing-patient-navigation-2024/executive-summary prescancerpanel.cancer.gov
- President’s Cancer Panel. Full report PDF. https://prescancerpanel.cancer.gov/reports-meetings/enhancing-patient-navigation-2024/presidents-cancer-panel-2024-report.pdf prescancerpanel.cancer.gov
- Cleveland Clinic. Cancer Community Outreach Patient Navigation Program. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/departments/cancer/patient-education/cancer-community-outreach Cleveland Clinic
- MedlinePlus. Telehealth. https://medlineplus.gov/telehealth.html MedlinePlus
- CMS. Calendar Year 2024 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule fact sheet including CHI and PIN. https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/calendar-year-cy-2024-medicare-physician-fee-schedule-final-rule Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- CMS. MLN Matters summary of CY 2024 final rule. https://www.cms.gov/files/document/mm13452-medicare-physician-fee-schedule-final-rule-summary-cy-2024.pdf Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- CMS. Health Related Social Needs FAQ including Principal Illness Navigation codes. https://www.cms.gov/files/document/health-related-social-needs-faq.pdf Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. Nurse practitioner role overview. https://college.mayo.edu/academics/explore-health-care-careers/careers-a-z/nurse-practitioner/ Mayo Clinic College
Deborah Hall
- About: Deborah Hall’s primary specialty is other healthcare benefits access. She helps people apply for coverage, clears questions, and connects them to programs fast.
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