Supporting better health outcomes for Canadians through innovations in care

How Medavie is caring for communities in the age of COVID-19—and beyond

As the coronavirus unfolded across the world, it brought forward transformation and ripples of disruption – changing the way we live, socialize and work.

Facing our greatest challenge in recent memory, health care organizations – like so many other industries – reimagined ways to safely deliver services, while protecting the health and wellbeing of communities. We’ve been inspired by the heroic efforts of essential workers for their integral role in keeping us safe and the budding future of health care that is taking shape across the country. In many ways, COVID-19 has been a catalyst for change and has driven the accelerated adoption of virtual health – increasing access to online doctors through remote appointments and reducing wait times – that has enabled people to access care more easily when and where they need it.

At Medavie, our mission is to improve the wellbeing of Canadians. Throughout the pandemic, our unwavering commitment and strong tradition of supporting our communities has guided our actions – enabling better health outcomes and more access points to care for Canadians.

As an organization, we’ve faced this challenge together and have kept our core values of being caring, accountable, responsive, innovative and community-minded front and centre. On the health benefits side, through Medavie Blue Cross, we’ve been focused on providing greater flexibility and offering more options to our clients and members. We hope our contributions – providing premium relief for small- and medium-sized businesses and adding more virtual health care options for our individual and group plan members – have helped ease the burden.

Through Medavie Health Services, we’ve remained focused on bringing high-quality care to patients, including new solutions for safe and secure COVID-19 testing and delivering innovative care programs that treat patients directly in their own homes and communities. Thanks to our community health teams of frontline workers, including paramedics and nurses through an expanded scope, we have helped alleviate pressures on various provincial COVID-19 testing facilities through enhanced screening measures and by bringing tests directly to patients in long-term care facilities.

The events of the last few months have underscored the importance of helping one another, especially our most vulnerable and at-risk community members. That’s why, through our Medavie Health Foundation, we’ve committed $5 million to improve access to food and mental health services. This includes providing $750,000 to the Atlantic Compassion Fund to help communities address their immediate needs, ensuring that vulnerable community members are not left behind.

We recognize that it’s not business as usual. Now is the time for flexible and adaptable leadership, delivering care in the community so people can stay safe in their homes, helping people access care through inclusive benefit plans and, ultimately, ensuring they receive the right care, at the right time.

As restrictions are cautiously lifted, we are focused on our workplace of the future and how, as a health solutions partner, we can help ensure the safety and wellbeing of our employees, while continuing to serve our partners, plan members and communities. That includes supporting those on the front lines by helping to further reduce community spread.

Looking forward, we will also continue to find ways to maintain our award-winning corporate culture, which is built on collaboration and having an engaged and talented workforce. It’s about finding new ways for our teams to work together and stay connected whether they are in the office, their living room or caring for patients.

We are proud of the more than 6,400 Medavie employees who are part of the solution of keeping our communities safe and healthy. At Medavie, our promise is to continue to put the wellbeing of Canadians first – today and for generations to come.