CEO: Dedicated Senior Medical Center Will Help Build Healthier Neighborhood
Daniel J. Loepp
| 3 min read
Daniel J. Loepp is President and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
Editor's Note: The East English Village Dedicated Senior Medical Center location on Cadieux Road will closed permanently in July 2024. Dedicated's two other Detroit centers - on East Jefferson Avenue and West Seven Mile Road - will remain open.
Thriving communities are healthy and vibrant. That’s why Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is always working to increase access to high-value health care. This approach is a pillar of our company’s mission and values. We touch lives in every age group and every corner of Michigan through our products, services and community investments.
This effort goes beyond the quality health insurance we are best known for and includes hundreds of programs and corporate contributions, statewide partnerships, volunteerism and addressing the social and environmental factors that impact health. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan is working collaboratively with physicians and health systems to change how health care is delivered.
We’re also increasing services covered by our members’ health insurance plans. While the pandemic has unmasked and elevated the public conversation around the significant health disparities that exist in our country, our community partners know that we’ve been working on addressing them for many years. But the pandemic increased our urgency. Over the last year, we’ve provided unconscious bias education to more than 5,000 physicians.
We’re proud forerunners to Michigan’s new law passed this summer that requires medical professionals to complete similar training when earning or renewing their licenses. At the neighborhood level, I take much pride in our work directly in the communities we serve. For example, through our $5 million investment to support inclusive development in Detroit’s East Warren/Cadieux neighborhood, we’re committed to fulfilling the vision of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s Strategic Neighborhood Fund and Affordable Housing Leverage Initiative.
This fund supports enhancing streetscapes, parks and greenways which add to the vibrancy and renewal throughout Detroit — where we’ve been headquartered since 1939. To further support the Cornerstone, Morningside and East English Village communities, where I grew up, we’ve sponsored flu shot clinics and brought COVID-19 testing and food-distribution events while empowering youth organizations, sports and learning.
This leads me to our excitement about the recent opening of a Dedicated Senior Medical Center (a subsidiary of ChenMed) in this same neighborhood. As we finalized our partnership with ChenMed it was important to me personally that one of the six locations they would bring to the metro Detroit area be located in the East Warren/Cadieux neighborhood because I experienced firsthand the benefits of growing up in a healthy, supportive community.
Through partnerships with primary care providers like Dedicated — which specializes in care for Medicare beneficiaries and seniors with a preventative care focus — we are helping to bring personalized and affordable services to at-risk seniors where they live.
Dedicated will provide medical care services to Blue Cross members with Individual Medicare Advantage plans, with an emphasis on seniors who oftentimes lack access to care. I’m proud of our eight decades of service to the people of Michigan. We’re working harder than ever to provide our members protection and peace of mind.
Daniel J. Loepp is president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.
