HLB Values in Action: Mark Reagan Mentors Students on ElderCareBridge Project Supporting Senior Care Access
The process of applying for Medi-Cal is notoriously difficult, especially for seniors struggling to comply with complex qualification requirements, document demands, and long processing delays.
So, when Marin Academy high school seniors Navah Bailey and Amy Salama said that they wanted to do a community service project involving the elderly and technology, their mentor, Hooper, Lundy & Bookman Managing Shareholder Mark Reagan, suggested they develop a way to help people access Medi-Cal benefits as well as other health care-related community resources.
The result: ElderCareBridge.com, a website where seniors in Marin and San Francisco counties can go to find clear, concise information on qualifying for Medi-Cal, along with many other assistance programs that can help them, even if they don’t qualify.
“I always knew that the health care system was complicated,” says Navah. “But doing this project gave me a better understanding of just how tedious it can be, and a deep appreciation for the people who work directly with seniors to advocate for them.”
Navah and Amy had met Mark earlier in their senior year, when he and HLB partner Stephen Phillips gave a talk to students at Marin Academy on artificial intelligence and health care. When it was time to start their senior community service project this spring, they reached out to Mark, who serves as General Counsel for the California Association of Health Facilities, the Massachusetts Senior Care Association and the American Health Care Association while also representing numerous long-term care facilities and other providers.
Over a period of three weeks, they met several times with Mark, who helped them understand the major issues facing seniors and sharpen the focus of the website. He also put them in touch with senior care organizations, such as California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform and Partnership HealthPlan. Then, using Netlify as a platform, and Amy’s grandmother as a beta tester, they built the website.
“Her feedback was very important to us,” says Amy of her grandmother. “We wanted to build something that seniors could actually use.”
Amy and Navah plan to continue building traffic by reaching out to some of the organizations listed on the website this summer. After they head to college, where they both intend to study neuroscience, they hope that another pair of Marin Academy seniors could expand the website as part of their community service project next year.
Mark, who spent 13 years serving as an elected board member in two different school districts, says mentoring young people on projects like ElderCareBridge.com is consistent with HLB’s values.
“Ultimately, we’re a private law firm serving our clients, but we are mission-based,” says Mark, whose daughter is also a recent Marin Academy graduate. “How can we improve, maintain and advance access to care for all people?
“These are some of the most complex issues that we face as a society, and if we can encourage smart young people to help solve them, that’s very meaningful.”
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