Story and photos by Van Mitchell, staff writer
Anna Covey, Community Liaison with VIPcare, said pop-up resource fairs like the one held for veterans Nov. 16 at the American Legion LeBron Post 58 in Guthrie allow them to learn more about both VA benefits and community resources and benefits available to them, including value-based healthcare.
VIPcare and Senior News and Living sponsored the Guthrie event, and more resource fairs are planned for 2024.
“VIPcare is committed to delivering compassionate and preventive healthcare, a standard that our veterans rightfully deserve,” Covey said. “This level of exceptional healthcare is something everyone should have access to.” Covey explained that VIPcare specializes in primary care for individuals 65 and older. They accept most Medicare Advantage plans and work personally with insurance plans to ensure military families receive the coverage they need and deserve.
“We believe in better healthcare as opposed to ‘sick care,’” Covey said. “VIPcare eliminates potential healthcare burdens by offering same-day appointments and transportation assistance to and from appointments. Because our doctors only see an average of 12 to 15 patients a day instead of the industry standard of 25 to 35, they’re able to spend more time with patients, sometimes up to 30 minutes. This allows for a different mindset and a different way of providing care. At VIPcare, it’s about time. More time with the patient. More time to care.”
Steven Sibley, Senior News & Living Account Executive and Retired/Disabled Veteran, said he was approached by VIP Care about co-sponsoring community-based resource fairs.
“This is all about partnering with our advertisers, bringing their services and resources to the communities where they serve and our readers live,” he said. “We also brought in representatives from the VA, the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs, and invited several of Guthrie’s local resource providers, like the Chamber and a veteran owner barbershop. They were all excited to participate.”
Steve Gentling, Guthrie’s Mayor, a veteran and post member himself remarked, “Events like this is great. Bringing these resources to the communities where veterans live is the best way to not only educate them, but it also shows them how much we care and honor their sacrifices.”
Mark Cope with Nerve Renewal attended the Guthrie event, and said veterans currently make up 5 to 10 percent of their patient load. He said attending resource fairs allows veterans to learn about Nerve Renewal services.
“With the VA we are in the process of educating their doctors about our services,” he said. “Once we have an opportunity to inform them about this treatment option, the numbers of our veteran patients should increase.”
Cope said Nerve Renewal treatments are FDA-approved.
“We are using a drug-free treatment which involves electrical stimulation combined with a vitamin B-12 complex nutrient blend,” he said. “We’re utilizing equipment to depolarize the nerve cell membrane, which basically shuts the nerve signal down. While that is happening, the nerve is open to receive nutrients from the Vitamin-B injection. What we’re doing is nourishing those nerves.”
Cope said another aspect of the treatment is when they turn the nerve signal off, it sorts of resets the brain and the nerves so they are not firing as much, reducing nerve pain during the treatment.
“We find about 80 percent of our patients have lasting relief when they complete the entire treatment program,” he said. “If a veteran has been diagnosed with neuropathy, they simply need to request a community referral from their VA primary care provider or neurologist, tell them about Nerve Renewal and that they want to come to us for treatment. I think that resource fairs are great for educating veterans about all the different services that are available to them.”
Kim Vincent, the Post Adjutant, was thankful for all who attended and supported the event.
“We were honored to host so many resource providers, and see so many veterans and family members”, she said. “This has been a vision for quite some time, so when Steve Sibley and I first met a few weeks ago, he acted quickly to pull it off. I am beyond thankful for his work and professionalism in doing so.”
Sibley, a Medicare Product Specialist for Veterans, who co-owns Sibley Insures with his wife, said he was pleased with the turnout at the Guthrie Veteran Resource Fair.
“We had 22 resource providers and probably twice that many veterans and their spouses,” he said.
For more information about Nerve Renewal visit https://nerverenewalnow.com/.
For more information about VIP Care visit https://getvipcare.com/oklahoma/.
For more information about Senior News and Living visit https://seniornewsandliving.com/.
For more information about Sibley Insures visit https://www.sibleyinsures.com/
