The New England Quality Care Alliance (NEQCA) www.neqca.org is collaborating with Cigna www.cigna.com to improve patient access to healthcare and to improve care coordination. This initiative will benefit more than 10,000 individuals covered by a Cigna administered health plan receiving care from NEQCA physicians, a network of more than 1,800 community and academic physicians affiliated with Tufts Medical Center www.tuftsmedicalcenter.org.
The Cigna care coordination plan uses registered nurse care coordinators as part of a physician-led care team to help people get follow-up care or screenings as needed, identify potential complications related to medications, and help prevent chronic conditions from worsening. Care coordinators also work with a team of Cigna case managers.
The Cigna Collaborate Care arrangement can be with a large physician group, a large primary care practice, a multi-specialty group, a fully integrated delivery system, a physician hospital organization, or an independent physician association.
The medical group must be willing to accept the responsibility to achieve improved health, affordability, and patient experience and is rewarded through a pay-for-value structure if they meet targets for improving quality and lowering medical costs.
Recently, NEQCA was awarded a Harvard Pilgrim Health Care (HPHC) www.harvardpilgrim.org Quality Grant for $75,000 to support behavioral health services on Cape Cod. The funding will support a pilot to develop and support behavioral health for patients living on Cape Cod through an Adult Behavioral Health Program.
As part of the grant, NEQCEA will partner with Gosnold http://gosnold.org, a nationally accredited addiction and mental health treatment provider offering a full continuum of behavioral health prevention, treatment, and recovery management services.
Gosnold clinicians, certified in primary care and behavioral integration through the UMass Medical School www.umassmed.edu, will provide behavioral health interventions, consultations, screening, and other therapeutic services critical to the care of this patient population.