Tufts Health Plan is funding three projects designed by a Rhode Island primary care initiative managed by UMass Medical School, according to Jan. 9 stories in the Rhode Island Small Business Journal and Providence Business News.
The Office of Program Development within UMass Medical School’s Commonwealth Medicine division has been providing project management support for the Care Transformation Collaborative of Rhode Island (CTC) since 2011 under a contract with The Rhode Island Foundation. UMass Medical School’s Office of Program Development staff assists the initiative by providing leadership, project management, program development and subcontract management support.
“Tufts Health Plan is an important partner in advancing these projects that have been designed to improve integrated behavioral health as part of patient-centered medical homes,” Debra Hurwitz, MBA, BSN, RN, an Office of Program Development senior program development associate and co-director of CTC, said in a news release. “The projects address the needs of medical practices around how they can more effectively work with patients in the primary care setting for such things as mental health care, substance abuse and unhealthy lifestyles.”
The funded projects include implementing education and training to improve the capacity of primary care staff to provide integrated behavioral health services, expanding Web-based referrals and care coordination to improve Rhode Island’s behavioral health referral network for primary care providers and accessing technology tools to improve patient engagement in making healthier lifestyle choices through interactive website applications.
CTC provides care to more than 320,000 Rhode Island residents. CTC works to improve quality outcomes, improve patient experiences and reduce the costs of unnecessary hospitalizations, and provides practices with incentives to meet those goals.