Kirkwood's Todd Chollet Opens New Service To Help Seniors and Individuals With Disabilities

Office Will Voice Needs and Desires, Preserve Dignity and Protect Assets of Those Needing Care While Bringing Peace of Mind to Their Families and Professional Advisors

Seniors in St. Louis, individuals with physical or mental disabilities, as well as their family members and appointed legal and fiduciary advisors, have gained a valuable resource for tackling the myriad and often complex responsibilities of managing healthcare, day-to-day tasks and quality-of-life concerns with the announcement today that IKOR, a growing network of offices offering healthcare and financial advocacy and life care management, has opened a new branch here.

Kirkwood resident Todd Chollet, PT, DPT, CSA, a graduate of the Washington University School of Medicine with a doctorate in physical therapy, will serve as managing director of IKOR. As a certified senior advisor (CSA) and a licensed physical therapist, Chollet has spent years helping clients regain physical function and advising them on optimizing quality of life in a safe environment. He is also a former compliance officer and investment analyst for Moneta Group, a Registered Investment Advisor. That background, he says, has given him great insight into identifying and addressing predatory behavior and financial mismanagement, two areas in which IKOR specializes.

“I have experienced first-hand the confusing, fragmented and disorganized state of our medical system, and have assisted multiple family members in coordinating care and making sense of recommendations, treatments and bills from stakeholders throughout the medical system,” Chollet says. “IKOR's assessments, recommendations and oversight are unbiased and objective, allowing for clear judgment when deciding what is in the client's best interest.”

IKOR’s comprehensive care management solution consists of Registered Nurse Advocates who have specialized training from IKOR and a thorough understanding of medical advocacy. They help navigate the complex and often fragmented care systems, determine each client’s specific medical needs and coordinate the delivery of care services in a way that provides optimal quality of life, meets personal preferences and maximizes both dignity and independence. They are available to established clients all day, every day to address healthcare management, environmental or psychosocial crises. Specially trained staff on-call in each office can also handle Power of Attorney authorizations, provide financial advocacy such as tackling routine bill-pay, and ensure that clients receive all public-program assistance to which they are entitled. Through its proprietary database-driven system, Datikor®, IKOR also ensures that everyone officially involved in a client’s case has real-time access to the information they need for peace of mind and seamless, accurate care.

Judy Thomas, a Registered Nurse with more than 25 years of healthcare experience, will serve as Register Nurse Advocate for IKOR. Thomas’ extensive background in healthcare includes roles as care manager for special needs with Humana, director of an assisted living community, admissions coordinator for long-term acute care (LTAC) at Kindred Hospital, referral specialist with St. Anthony’s Home Health, and admissions coordinator, nurse navigator and clinical liaison with SSM Rehabilitation Hospital.

“Judy will work with our clients to determine their medical needs and coordinate the delivery of care services to ensure that those needs are being met and that our clients’ personal preferences are being fulfilled,” says Chollet. “I am very confident that coupling her background with mine and with the support of the IKOR system behind us, we will be extremely beneficial in mitigating stress and maximizing quality of life for families throughout our community.”

IKOR now offers Life Care Management services to help shoulder the burden of managing everyday life. For seniors, this may include:

• navigating the healthcare system and advocating for proper care;
• choosing the best living arrangements;
• paying bills to ensure necessary products and services continue uninterrupted;
• weeding out fraudulent offers and other scam mail;
• serving as an objective third-party immune to the pressures of internal family conflict;
• and other activities designed to alleviate the excessive demands on time, emotional exhaustion and feelings of being overwhelmed that often accompany major life decisions or when separated by too long a distance to be on-call throughout the day, every day.

In addition, individuals with mental or physical disabilities and their families will find IKOR a valuable resource in helping to set up living situations that afford the maximum independence appropriate for their current and future needs, ensuring that they are getting all the services and support to which they’re entitled while avoiding unwarranted expense, and securing further education and employment, enabling them to become more productive members of society.

IKOR is located at 111 Westport Plaza Drive, Suite 600, in St. Louis. To inquire about services, contact Todd Chollet at (314) 764-5671.