For Katherine Jones — overweight, with arthritic knees — walking was agony. Even with leg braces, she couldn’t go more than a block from her Baltimore home. Today, she’s walking 3 miles. How? She’s lost 41 pounds, much of that after joining a weight loss program at People’s Community Health Center at Open Gates.

Funded by CareFirst, “Get Hip, Get Healthy” features group and individual meetings with Susan Zator MPH, RN. Katherine has learned much about nutrition and exercise. She’s developed a taste for skim milk, works out with weights. And those braces? “They are in a corner.”

CareFirst believes that health care is best advanced when all members of our communities are served.

Because our mission is your health, CareFirst is committed to meeting the needs of our increasingly diverse communities.

We’re focusing on improving delivery of care to groups that face important medical issues but don’t always receive the appropriate care to identify and treat illnesses. CareFirst is working to reduce health disparities in these illnesses of critical importance to racial and ethnic groups:

• Cardiovascular disease in African Americans
• Diabetes in Latinos
• Cervical cancer in Asian women

CareFirst will set up programs to improve education and communication about health conditions, to ensure that patients get appropriate care and stay current with prescribed treatments.

Further, because language barriers are sometimes an issue for members, CareFirst will boost efforts to translate health information that can be used by people for whom English is not their primary language.

We’re reserving part of our corporate giving to not-for-profit organizations that work to eliminate health care disparities.

CareFirst is committed to healthy communities in which all groups have access to quality, effective care.

CAREFIRST SERVES KEY POPULATIONS:

• We’re continuing our support of more than $20 million a year for Maryland’s senior prescription program
• We’re the only insurance carrier that offers an open enrollment plan — a product offered to anyone regardless of health — in Washington, D.C.
• We’ve filed for approval to offer prescription drug benefits under the new Medicare Part D law in Maryland, Delaware and Washington, D.C.