A new health care facility for patients with chronic illnesses opens tomorrow in Chapel Hill. The clinic called Carolina Advanced Health is a joint effort between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and UNC Health Care. It's designed to treat members of Blue Cross with chronic illnesses like diabetes, COPD and depression. Doctor Thomas Warcup is the director of the new facility. He says it brings together different specialists to keep patients out of the Emergency Room or urgent care clinics.
Thomas Warcup: "Our hypothesis is that many people that visit those institutions are feeling that they don't have access to their health care team. And allowing the variety of ways that we're doing it would keep the costs down from ER and hospital admissions."
Blue Cross estimates about 5,000 of its members are eligible to enroll for treatment at the clinic.