12/11/2025
Providing Health Care in Challenging Times
By: Ashmar Mandou
Health always takes priority at the top of the New Year, and Cook County Health is intent on helping patients build healthy habits, offering holistic approaches to mental health services, and most importantly reminding residents to take advantage of CountyCare, a high-ranking, high-quality Medicaid Health Plan.
“CountyCare is one of the largest Medicaid health care plan, which covers nearly 400,000 members across Cook County. The access to care has been the biggest priority here at Cook County and it’s what my patients benefit from,” said Dr. Ena Mahapatra, MD, Director of Colon Cancer Screening Clinic, Division of Medicine, John H. Stronger, Jr. Hospital and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Rush University.
CountyCare is Cook County’s largest Medicaid health plan, available exclusively to HealthChoice Illinois enrollees who live in Cook County. CountyCare has a network of 70 hospitals, 150 urgent and immediate care locations and more than 32,000 primary care providers and specialists across Cook County. The plan offers extra benefits like free LASIK and Visa cash rewards for members when they engage in preventive health care services. It is owned and operated by Cook County Health, one of the nation’s leading public health systems, which serves all patients regardless of ability to pay.
“As we all know, Cook County Health is a safety net hospital, here at Stroger and at Provident Hospital. We see various socioeconomic levels of health from grandmothers being the primary caregiver, to patients unable to rely on transportation, we have elderly patients, and we have patients that experience a whole lot of challenges. We want our patient population to know as well as residents in Cook County to know that we are here to provide them with all the information, to answer all their questions, and lay out the best plan for their health journey,” said Dr. Mahapatra.
Recently awarded a four-star rating by NCQA, a non-profit organization that assesses Medicaid and Medicare health insurance plans in every state, CountyCare provides patients with a multi-layered approach to medical care that is rooted in patient care and investment in innovation programming giving members the optimal experience. A few of the benefits provided by CountyCare include:
Behavioral Health
CountyCare offers behavioral health services for both children and adult members to treat mental health and substance use disorders. Offers medication management, mental health assessments, individual, group, and family therapy, community support, and much more.
Long-Term Care
Long-term care sometimes goes by different names such as nursing home, nursing facility, long-term care facility or skilled nursing facility. These facilities provide services that help support both the medical and nonmedical needs of residents who require assistance and support to care for themselves due to a chronic illness or disability. If you are living in a long-term care facility, CountyCare has supports in place to ensure you are getting the care you need. If you are able, we have resources to assist in transitioning you back to living independently in the community
Brighter Beginnings
CountyCare offers family planning services through our network of family planning providers. You can get services from any qualified family planning provider, and they do not have to be a network provider. You also do not need a referral from your P*P or permission from CountyCare to get these services.
With CountyCare, you will not have copays for your medical care or prescription drugs. You should not get any bills for your CountyCare covered benefits or pre-authorized services. To qualify for HealthChoice Illinois, the statewide Medicaid managed care program, you can apply any time and you must be a resident of the State of Illinois, meet income requirements, be a U.S. Citizen or meet certain immigration requirements. If you are interested in learning more or applying, visit www.countycare.com.
