Grant Partners

Ecu-Health Care will utilize broadcast and print media to inform residents of health coverage options; provide presentations to community organizations; educate area businesses about health coverage options for employees; and work with physicians’ groups and health and human service organizations to facilitate referrals. Churn will be reduced through education during one-on-one application assistance appointments and health insurance literacy is integrated into a comprehensive packet for applicants.

The Health Starts at Home Initiative supports four partnerships that bring together housing and health care organizations to support work that demonstrates the positive effects of stable, affordable housing to children's health outcomes, identify promising new and existing models for collaboration that can be brought to scale, decrease health care costs, and decrease costs related to homelessness.  Families eligible for participation have children under the age of 12, and are experiencing housing instability.  The evaluation partners for Health Starts at Home, Health Resources in Action and the Urban Institute, are conducting both outcome and process evaluations to measure whether and how improved housing stability affects the health of children, as well as to document successes and challenges, and develop best practices for creating these types of health care and housing partnerships. 

Hilltown Community Health Centers (HCHC) will work with small businesses, Councils on Aging, schools, employers, medical providers, and community organizations to conduct outreach, advertise in newsletters, print, and social media. They will work with the Connector to identify and target outreach to consumers who need to renew their coverage and partner with sheriff’s departments, courts and probation offices to reach recently incarcerated and court-involved individuals who experience higher rates of churn. To address health insurance literacy, they will develop consumer-friendly education tools and collateral. 

Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance (MHSA) serves unaccompanied homeless adults throughout the state, with a primary focus on the chronically homeless.  MHSA will analyze the impact of housing as a social determinant of health among the chronically homeless population through two permanent supportive housing programs, Home & Healthy for Good and Pay for Success.  In partnership with the Commonwealth Medicine division of UMass Medical School and Analysis Group, the study will estimate the impact of participation in these programs on health care use and costs, using Medicaid claims and enrollment data. 

Dukes County will participate in community outreach events, and use paid and unpaid advertising and social media to promote affordable insurance information. They will develop a folder with handouts for appointments, and adapt a checklist for account set-up, enrollment and payment information, primary care provider selection, and making appointments. It will also set up reminder systems for clients with pending action steps. 

Boston Center for Independent Living (BCIL) will provide services to and seek full integration for individuals with disabilities into society. BCIL will advocate to policymakers and legislative leaders, maintain and strengthen operations for the Disability Advocates Advancing our Healthcare Rights (DAAHR) Coalition, organize the disability community against any threats to coverage or affordability, develop organizational technical expertise, and provide policy analysis and input to the field, particularly related to One Care. BCIL will also increase capacity to focus on behavioral health integration and social equity.

The National Alliance on Mental Illness Massachusetts (NAMI Mass) will strive for access to services for all who need them and end the stigma around mental illness.  Their strategies include educating families and individuals to understand their illnesses and advocating for needed services. NAMI will strengthen their policy focus on the following issues: a lack of uniform access to health-related benefits; lack of recognition of cost-effective treatment modalities by MassHealth; and inequitable treatment of disability coverage for mental illness.

Codman Square Health Center will conduct outreach and enrollment, hold a series of events to help attendees complete insurance applications, and provide orientations on available health coverage options.  Computers will be made available at the Codman Tech Center to access the health insurance marketplace, and consumers will be connected to the health center’s patient-centered medical home model to promote consumer engagement and self-sufficiency.  

Community Health Connections will conduct intensive street and shelter outreach to individuals who are homeless, providing eligibility determinations and application assistance.  They will hold “office hours” at local organizations to answer questions regarding programs, eligibility requirements, and sources of care in the community.  A “Community Collaborations” group consisting of health and human services organizations will be convened, serving the region’s homeless, to share information about the Affordable Care Act.  

Community Action Committee of Cape Cod & Islands will continue individualized “Access to Care – Navigating the Massachusetts Health Care System” educational sessions for consumers, and design a training guide identifying MassHealth mailings and navigating the complex health care system.  They will conduct a series of outreach events to educate the public on changes through the Affordable Care Act.  

Project Directors: James Maxwell, PhD, Director of Research and Policy (Principal Investigator) and Pat Fairchild, MA, Vice President of JSI US Division“An Assessment of CHCs’ Implementation of Alternative Payment and Delivery System Reforms” will assess the current status and readiness of Community Health Centers (CHCs) to implement payment and delivery system reforms as well as to identify the primary barriers and facilitators to implementing these reforms. Relying on qualitative data collected through key informant interviews among staff at 18-20 CHCs and quantitative data available through the Uniform Data Set (UDS) from the Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA), the research team plans to: identify the financial incentives and structural requirements being placed on CHCs based on the key components of their contracts for Medicaid’s Primary Care Payment Reform Initiative (PCPRI) and with Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO) plans; document the current status of CHCs in implementing components of payment and delivery system reforms; highlight and elucidate the primary barriers and facilitators to implementing reforms; and analyze the extent to which risk-based contracting and alternative payment reforms are associated with changes in CHCs’ costs and revenues. 

The Joint Committee for Children’s Health Care in Everett will provide application assistance and referral support, and conduct a multimedia publicity campaign to reach consumers about the Affordable Care Act.  Additional education will be provided through a multilingual helpline, website, and newsletter.  A series of educational sessions will be conducted at local community organizations on navigating the health system and using the Health Information Exchange.  

Through its Health Access Campaign, the Massachusetts Immigrant Refugee & Advocacy Coalition will advocate for all immigrants to maintain current coverage or obtain benefits under the Affordable Care Act.  It will translate and share information on health coverage options available through the federal law to educate members, policymakers, and community-based organizations that serve immigrant stakeholders.  

Hilltown Community Health Centers will assist with applications and annual eligibility reviews and connect patients with primary care providers.  They will provide monthly public education sessions on health coverage options for consumers, and adapt their electronic medical record to establish a referral system across departments.  Educational materials will be developed on the changes in the health insurance marketplace.  Finally, they will work with small businesses in the community that may be eligible for health care tax credits through the marketplace. 

Project Directors: Robin Clark, PhD, Director of Research and Evaluation (Principal Investigator) and Deborah Gurewich, PhD, Associate Director of Research and Evaluation“Identification of Effective Community-Based Models for Coordinating Care for Persons with Substance Use Disorders” will analyze community-based approaches for coordinating care for patients with substance use disorders (SUD) and identify those models that appear most effective in accomplishing care coordination. Through their work, which will be based on assessing different care coordination models employed at three sites serving the Worcester area, the team will provide insight into the relative efficacy of different community-based approaches for engaging and coordinating services for patients with SUDs. Efficacy will measured based on a comparison of selected cost and quality metrics as well as self-reported patient experience.