Mental Health and Substance Use Services for Adult Members
RIO GRANDE VALLEY – Motherhood is a big job, and helping mothers and their babies stay healthy in South Texas is a big focus of Driscoll Health Plan (DHP). For example, DHP encourages moms to stay on track with Texas Health Steps – a roadmap to healthy living for mothers and newborns – by offering incentives such as gift cards for diapers* when they complete each of their postpartum checkups and at least four of the newborn checkups.
Under the Texas Health Steps incentive program, mothers are encouraged to visit their obstetrician after giving birth to ensure their recovery from delivery is proceeding well. These visits allow them to get additional information on breastfeeding and birth spacing.
“Similarly, we hope that the infant will get all the recommended checkups from his or her pediatrician or family physician,” said Ernest Buck, MD, medical director of DHP.
Infants’ checkups are typically scheduled at 5 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months and 9 months old, Dr. Buck said. The visits are spaced to ensure the babies’ growth and development is proceeding normally. They’ll get the recommended vaccines, and parents will have the chance to learn parenting skills.
As mothers complete each infant checkup, they can receive a gift card for diapers. In addition, DHP offers a $20 gift card to moms* who continue to get all checkups after the baby’s first year, which are scheduled at 12 months, 15 months, 18 months, 24 months, 30 months and annually from age 3 to 20 years.
“We want to encourage the family to get the very best in medical care and reward them for doing just that,” Dr. Buck said.
DHP has more than 51,600 members in the Hidalgo Service Delivery Area (SDA), which includes the counties of Cameron, Duval, Hidalgo, Jim Hogg, Maverick, McMullen, Starr, Webb, Willacy and Zapata. It is the only non-profit, provider-sponsored plan in the Hidalgo SDA. For more information about DHP, families can go to www.driscollhealthplan.com or call 855-425-3247.
This is the second in a series of four press releases about DHP’s value-added services.
* This is not an all-inclusive list of value-added services. Restrictions and/or limitations apply.
