The Vinfen Corporation in partnership with Bay Cove Human Services, North Suffolk Mental Health, Brookline Mental Health, and Commonwealth Care Alliance, received a CMS Health Care Innovation Award in 2012. The grant funds programs that integrate the health care and behavioral health care for individuals with serious mental illness (SMI) in metropolitan Boston by embedding nurse-practitioners and primary care physicians with their existing psychiatric rehabilitation care teams. By combining psychiatric rehabilitation care with high-quality primary care, the program creates community based health homes and improve individuals’ health by increasing access to health services, reducing the impact of their disorders, and reducing overutilization of acute services.
As part of the program, care management counselors and peer counselors use a unique training program developed by Dr. Steve Bartels at Dartmouth to help individuals to self-manage their medical and behavioral health issues. Telehealth technology enables health care teams to monitor patients, prioritize care, and intervene as necessary. Over a three-year period, the program will train an estimated 57 workers, and will create an estimated 11 jobs for health outreach workers, nurse practitioners, a primary care physician, and a project manager. The project is forecast to produce net savings by the third year of 2.5% and greater sustainable savings in the future.
