Community Leadership Award, Honorable mention: Solomon

The new wellness center that opened in Gretna, La., in September might seem like a typical gathering place for senior citizens. They can get nutritious meals there, take music classes or even practice yoga.

But unlike many traditional senior centers, the Gretna facility, which can serve about 130 seniors at once, was born out of a partnership between the city, the Jefferson Council on Aging and Peoples Health, a physician-owned Medicare Advantage HMO based in New Orleans. Some might consider it an unusual endeavor for an insurer, but Peoples Health CEO Carol Solomon said it's perfectly in line with the company's goals. And her mission.

“All these things, while they're not traditional healthcare benefits in an insurance program, are critically important to improving health outcomes,” Solomon said.

It's one of a number of somewhat nontraditional projects Solomon has embarked upon aimed at improving Louisianans' health through community service and initiatives as a leader of Peoples Health over the past 15 years.

In 2012, Solomon spearheaded an alliance between the insurer and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans to create the Center for Healthcare Advancement. The center's advisory council assembles best practices for treatment and prevention of the most common chronic conditions in Louisiana, such as diabetes. Those best practices are then shared with physicians in the insurer's network and Louisiana State medical students.

Dr. Cathi Fontenot, CEO of the LSU Healthcare Network, said implementation of such programs is one of Solomon's strengths. “Lots of people have plans on paper, but the implementation is always a challenge,” Fontenot said. “Carol just knows how to get it done.”

Solomon, 71, has also ensured the company's commitment to fighting hunger among seniors. In addition to the wellness center in Gretna, Peoples Health last year sponsored 400,000 food boxes for seniors through the Food for Families/Food for Seniors program. The insurer also donated $220,000 to the Jefferson Council on Aging's Meals on Wheels program, resulting in more than 41,000 meals served from September 2013 through August 2014.

“Everything is focused on the seniors,” Warren Murrell, Peoples Health chief operating officer, said of Solomon's work. “She wears her emotions on her sleeve when it comes to that sort of support.”

Murrell said Solomon has succeeded in building a culture at Peoples Health—a commitment to community service beyond the insurer's core business—that makes staff just as passionate about seniors' well-being as she is.

For Solomon, the work is personal. “We live and work in the community,” Solomon said, “and we feel like the people we take care of are our neighbors, our friends, the people we see at the grocery store and church.”

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