They distributed ice, scrounged up oxygen tanks and - maybe most important - sliced through bureaucratic red tape for victims of Hurricane Ike in Texas.
Four employees of Amerigroup Corp., a managed-care provider based in Virginia Beach, returned Friday after five days volunteering at a shelter outside Houston. The group, which had three associate vice presidents and a senior investigator who is a nurse, was part of a new effort by Amerigroup to send "disaster response teams" to the sites of hurricanes and other catastrophes.
The company's focus on Medicaid and other government programs came in handy.
"People were running low on oxygen and didn't know where to get it," said Gerry Stoner, an associate vice president, "and we were able to get it for them. We took people to the drugstore, explained what the benefits were to pharmacists and allowed them to get their drugs refilled."
Associate vice president Angela Perri interceded with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to find housing for a volunteer whose apartment had been destroyed.
Amerigroup launched the idea of the response teams in January. They've been active this month: Stoner's was the third team launched, after Hurricanes Gustav and Hanna.
Philip Walzer, (757) 222-3864, phil.walzer@pilotonline.com
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