Special health programs

AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia (DC) enrollees with diabetes can join special programs to help them manage their condition.

Call 202-216-2318 to join the diabetes program.

What can the diabetes program do for me?

The diabetes program can help you:

• Understand the medications you are taking
• Know the importance of the foods you eat
• Know why it is so important for you to test your blood sugar as often as your provider asks you to
• Understand why exercise and weight control are so important

What is diabetes?¹

Diabetes is a disease that affects how your body breaks down sugar. It causes your body to have too much sugar in the blood. It could also be that you do not have enough insulin. Insulin helps your body break down the sugar in the food you eat to give you energy.

If you do not manage your diabetes, it can:

• Cause you to go blind, get kidney disease, and have foot problems
• Make it easier to get infections and/or wounds that will not heal
• Put you at a higher risk of getting heart disease or having a stroke
• Cause you to have nerve damage
• Make you feel tired, thirsty, and like you have to go to the bathroom much more than usual

Additional services

• Wellness Circles

AmeriHealth Caritas DC partners with community organizations across the District to offer classes that help you manage your weight and improve your overall health. Wellness Circles involve six classes over three months taught by health educators and wellness experts. Topics include ways to lower your blood sugar, making healthier food choices, menu planning, and exercise.

• Spanish-language nutrition and diabetes programs

AmeriHealth Caritas DC enrollees can attend La Clínica del Pueblo’s health education classes, which are offered for six-week periods. Classes are taught in Spanish only and include topics such as healthy eating, exercise, diabetes, medication management, and weight loss tips. Learn about La Clínica del Pueblo.

• Meal delivery program

We believe food is medicine, so AmeriHealth Caritas DC offers home-delivered meals to enrollees with certain medical conditions. Enrollees who have prediabetes, diabetes, high blood pressure, or who are pregnant can sign up to receive medically-tailored meals delivered right to their door.

• Dietitian services

Your primary care provider (PCP) or AmeriHealth Caritas DC Care Manager can refer you for dietitian services. You will be paired with a dietitian who meets with you one-on-one to help you create a nutrition plan that meets your health needs. Alternatively, you can find and meet with a dietitian without a referral by using our provider search tool.

• Online diabetes prevention course

If you have prediabetes, you can take a diabetes prevention class online to learn about weight management and proper nutrition.

• Howard University Hospital Diabetes Treatment Center

Diabetes education classes are offered in a group or one-on-one with a health educator to learn about healthy eating, weight loss, and managing your overall health.

Join a diabetes program today

Call our Community Outreach Solutions team at 202-216-2318 to learn more or sign up for these programs.

Visit our Diabetes Care Center page.

If you were a part of but no longer want to be in a diabetes program, call 202-216-2318. Leaving the program will not change your benefits. It will also not change the way AmeriHealth Caritas DC or DC Healthy Families treats you.    

1. “Diabetes,” Familydoctor.org, September 20, 2020, https://familydoctor.org/condition/diabetes. 

AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia (DC) enrollees with asthma can join a special program to help them manage their condition.

Camp Breathe Happy

To help reduce the number of emergency room visits and hospitalizations for children with asthma, Breathe DC hosts Camp Breathe Happy summer camp to teach asthma control and self-management skills to children ages 8 to 12. Campers are District of Columbia residents who struggle to manage and treat their asthma. During the camp, children learn how to:

• Identify their specific individual asthma triggers
• Recognize the signs and symptoms of an impending asthmatic episode
• Properly use medications, spacers, and peak flow meters
• Use breathing and relaxation exercises to help alleviate asthmatic symptoms
• Communicate about their illness more effectively with family members, peers, teachers, school nurses, and doctors

Please call the Community Outreach Solutions team at 202-216-2318 to see if this program is being offered virtually.

Breathe Easy. Start Today. (B.E.S.T.)

AmeriHealth Caritas DC provides comprehensive pharmacy benefits. Through the B.E.S.T. program, you can get your covered asthma medications directly from your provider when you visit.

Call 202-216-2318 today to join the asthma program.

What can the asthma program do for me?

The asthma program can help you:

• Understand what triggers your asthma
• Make an asthma action plan
• Understand your daily and rescue medications
• Learn the early warning signs of an asthma attack

What is asthma?¹

Asthma is a long-term illness that makes the airways to your lungs narrow, swollen, or blocked. It is important to do everything you can to keep your asthma under control.

Uncontrolled asthma:

• Makes it hard for you to breathe
• Keeps you from playing sports or doing physical activities
• Can cause you to miss work or school

You can control asthma if you:

• Know your triggers and how to avoid them
• Take your daily medicine as directed by your provider
• Use your rescue inhaler as directed by your provider

Join the asthma program today

To join the asthma program, please call 202-216-2318.

If you were a part of but no longer want to be in the asthma program, call 202-216-2318. Leaving the program will not change your benefits. It will also not change the way AmeriHealth Caritas DC or DC Healthy Families treats you.

1. “Asthma,” National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, September 18, 2014, https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/asthma.

Bright Start is a maternity care program that helps pregnant enrollees make healthy choices for themselves and their babies. The program is designed to support you throughout your pregnancy and after you give birth. When you join Bright Start, a Care Manager will call you and work with you to help you receive and use program services. If your pregnancy is high risk, a team of nurses and Care Connectors will check in with you often to help you stay connected to care during your pregnancy. 

Bright Start can help you:

• Find an OB/GYN or midwife
• Schedule transportation to and from your appointments
• Get diapers, a car seat, a breast pump, and other supplies
• Find breastfeeding support and childbirth classes
• Create a birth plan
• Sign up for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC)
• Sign up for home-delivered meals and other nutrition programs

Visit our Postpartum Care Center for information and resources for after you give birth

To join Bright Start, please call 1-877-759-6883, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. You can also call this number to let us know you no longer want to be in the program.

Download the Bright Start welcome booklet (PDF), Birth plan (PDF). Contact Bright Start at 1-877-759-6883, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

If your child is under 21, they are in the HealthCheck program. This program is also called Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT). The HealthCheck program gives your child a number of important checkups. Your child's PCP will provide or help your child get these services. You can also request to join HealthCheck by calling our Community Outreach Solutions team at 202-216-2318.

A mammogram is an X-ray of the breast that helps your provider look for signs of breast cancer. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that women get a mammogram every two years beginning at age 50. If you have a family history of breast cancer, your provider may recommend more frequent mammograms starting in your 40s. Learn more about mammograms. Opens a new window

• Local mammography events
  AmeriHealth Caritas DC has hosted or supported various mammography screening events at hospitals across the city, including events hosted by Howard University Hospital and MedStar Washington Hospital Center. These events typically include activities, education, screening, food, and fun. Please reach out to our Community Outreach Solutions team at 202-216-2318 for more information about these events.
• Mobile mammography van program
  AmeriHealth Caritas DC hosts a mobile mammography screening van once a month in different areas of the District, so you don’t have to go out of your way to get a breast cancer screening. Check the community events calendar to view the van’s schedule or call our Community Outreach Solutions team at 202-216-2318 for more information.

Effective May 31, 2024, AmeriHealth Caritas District of Columbia (DC) will end its relationship with American Specialty Health (ASH) and its Active&Fit program. The ASH Active&Fit program provides no-cost access to DC-area fitness centers for all AmeriHealth Caritas DC enrollees.

You may continue to use the Active&Fit fitness centers at no cost until May 31, 2024. After this date, if you plan to continue using a fitness center in the Active&Fit program, you will need to make arrangements directly with the fitness center. 

AmeriHealth Caritas DC will continue to offer fitness classes to enrollees at the Enrollee Wellness and Opportunity Center at no cost.

IDEA stands for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. IDEA is a federal law. The IDEA program provides special services for children with developmental delays, disabilities, or special needs. To get an IDEA evaluation, call your PCP. If your child needs IDEA services, your PCP will refer your child to the D.C. government's Early Intervention Program. AmeriHealth Caritas DC has Care Managers who can tell you more about IDEA and the other services your child can get.

For more detailed information on this program, refer to your Enrollee Handbook or call Enrollee Services at 202-408-4720 or 1-800-408-7511.

AmeriHealth Caritas DC enrollees with multiple chronic conditions or special health care needs can join this program to help manage their conditions.

What can the Complex Care Management program do for me?

The Complex Care Management program can help you:

• Understand and manage your chronic health conditions.
• Identify your medical and non-medical needs.
• Understand your medications.
• Set goals to improve your health.
• Find the right doctors and specialists to manage your care.
• Connect to available resources in your community.

To join the Complex Care Management program, please call the Community Outreach Solutions team at 202-216-2318.  

Your rights while enrolled in a case management program:

• Access information about the programs and services, staff qualifications, and any contractual relationships.
• Receive understandable information.
• Be treated courteously and respectfully by AmeriHealth Caritas DC’s staff.
• Decline participation or disenroll from programs and services.
• Know your case manager and how to request a change in case manager.
• Be informed of all case management services available, even if a service is not covered.
• Be supported by AmeriHealth Caritas DC to collaborate on decisions with their practitioners and to discuss options with treating practitioners.
• Have personally identifiable data and medical information kept confidential; know what entities have access to your information; and know procedures used by the organization to ensure security, privacy, and confidentiality.
• Communicate complaints to AmeriHealth Caritas DC and receive instructions on how to use the complaint process, including complaints and resolving issues.

Expectations while enrolled in a case management program:

• Provide AmeriHealth Caritas DC with timely information necessary to deliver services.
• Follow the mutually agreed-on case management plan or notify the case manager if you cannot follow the plan offered by the organization.
• Notify AmeriHealth Caritas DC and your primary care provider (PCP) if you disenroll from the program.

The Ombudsman Program is a District of Columbia government program that can assist and advise you in receiving health care from your managed care organization. The Ombudsman can explain the health care you have a right to receive and respond to your questions and concerns about your health care.

For more information about the Ombudsman Program, see your Enrollee Handbook. You can also reach the Ombudsman Program by calling 202-724-7491.