Grant Partners

Community Health Center of Cape Cod

Year: 2015 *Multi-year Grant: 2016, 2017
Amount:$175,000
Mashpee

With Foundation grant funding in 2015, CHC of Cape Cod used a combination of national best practices and center-designed strategies to develop a risk stratification tool to identify high-risk patients with significant behavioral and medical health co-morbidities, uncontrolled chronic diseases, a history of frequent hospitalization, and a history of frequent ED visits in order to implement a more comprehensive and effective model of integration.  The risk stratification tool has enabled the health center to create a high-risk registry that is fully operational and key to helping the center to achieve full integration.  With this three-year grant, CHC of Cape Cod will focus on patients who have screened for one or more behavioral health conditions, with the goal of improving access to ongoing behavioral health services for at least 1,000 patients who may benefit from an integrated care approach.  The health center will expand complex care management and quality improvement staff, and increase family involvement with care.

MetroWest Free Medical Program

Year: 2015
Amount:$1,000
Sudbury
Program Area: Catalyst Fund

To support participation in the 12-month Health Leads Reach Collaborative Learning Network.

Fishing Partnership Health Plan

Year: 2015 *Multi-year Grant: 2016
Amount:$40,000
Burlington

Fishing Partnership Health Plan (FPHP) will conduct outreach mailings and maintain presence at harbors, marinas, and trade shows, reaching fishermen and their families. They will address churn through providing a Resource Sheet with relevant deadlines, follow-up via preferred communications methods, and provide individual education sessions on health insurance literacy.

Boston Center for Independent Living

Year: 2015 *Multi-year Grant: 2016
Amount:$52,000
Boston

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.

Friends of Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly

Year: 2015 *Multi-year Grant: 2016
Amount:$50,000
Brighton
Program Area: Social Equity and Health

Friends of Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly (JCHE) provides supportive, affordable, independent senior housing in Massachusetts, and owns 1,200 apartments that are home to 1,500 low-income older adults in Brighton, Newton, and Framingham.  In collaboration with the LeadingAge Center for Applied Research, JCHE will seek to demonstrate the effectiveness of affordable housing on the quality of life for the organization's seniors, as well as an impact on costs to the government and health care system.  It will include metro Boston seniors who are low- and moderate-income with similar demographics (income, age, ethnicity, risk profile) living in subsidized housing and receiving supportive services.  The provision of housing will be studied as an intervention at three levels, using Medicaid and Medicare utilization data:  1) housing without services, 2) housing with resident service coordination only, and 3) housing with significant service enrichment. 

Boston University School of Social Work

Year: 2015
Amount:$147,363
Boston

Project Directors: Thomas Byrne, PhD, Principal Investigator and Daniel Miller, PhD, Co-Investigator“A Data-Based Redesign of Health Care and Housing for People who Experience Chronic Homelessness” is a two year project that will assess the potential return on investment associated with several different housing intervention models for persons age 55 and above experiencing chronic homelessness. The research team plans to: describe the health care utilization patterns among Massachusetts residents over the age of 55 who are enrolled in Medicaid and experience chronic homelessness and compare those patterns to two other comparison groups, including a similar cohort who experiences homelessness on a temporary basis and a cohort who have not experienced homelessness; project health care costs over the next ten years associated with Massachusetts residents over the age of 55 who are chronically homeless and enrolled in Medicaid in the absence of a housing intervention; and analyze if/to what extent implementation of several different housing models targeted to chronically homeless adults aged 55 and older would lead to reductions in health care costs. Where applicable, the researchers will also estimate the potential return on investment associated with large-scale implementation of the housing models considered. This project will focus on Massachusetts but is expected to be part of a multi-state project involving other independent studies in California, New York, and Washington (pending funding for projects in each of these states), which share similar research objectives.

Disability Policy Consortium

Year: 2015 *Multi-year Grant: 2016
Amount:$60,000
Boston

Disability Policy Consortium (DPC) will support the civil rights of people with disabilities by providing a unified voice for the community. DPC will promote consumer education and networking, community organizing, grassroots advocacy, policy promotion, and collaborative projects with government and nonprofit entities. It will continue its work with the DAAHR coalition and its Implementation Council, provide cross disability advocacy for access to health care, protect consumer choice and control, influence the implementation of One Care, integrate behavioral health into its work, and prioritize research focused on individuals with disabilities.

People Acting in Community Endeavors

Year: 2015 *Multi-year Grant: 2016
Amount:$40,000
New Bedford

People Acting in Community Endeavors (PACE) will facilitate enrollment and redetermination assistance for many “hard to reach” target populations through partnerships with schools, career centers, and ESOL classes. They will also develop materials to help individuals interpret notices and remind them of pending actions, as well as conduct individualized enrollment and group health insurance literacy sessions.

Lynn Community Health Center

Year: 2015 *Multi-year Grant: 2016, 2017
Amount:$150,000
Lynn

LCHC has developed and implemented a fully integrated primary care and behavioral health program with co-location of services, co-management of patients by the medical and behavioral health providers through a shared care model, and utilization of shared electronic medical records through a newly-implemented Epic system.  The Foundation has supported the development, growth and improvement of this very strong behavioral health integration program, with continued funding for the health center’s response to the substance abuse epidemic in Lynn.  Building upon the learning and successes of its foundational behavioral health integration model, LCHC has developed an integrated primary care/mental health/addictions team of professionals who specialize in addictions and mental health disorders.  The team also utilizes medication to treat addictions, including Suboxone, with plans to add Vivitrol.  LCHC will expand this multi-disciplinary team by adding a psychiatrist, therapists, primary care providers, and nursing staff to serve approximately 800 patients.

Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee

Year: 2015 *Multi-year Grant: 2016
Amount:$40,000
Cambridge

Cambridge Economic Opportunity Committee (CEOC) will plan outreach and enrollment activities at community locations. It will use an extensive follow-up system to address churn, ensuring that individuals have obtained the benefit they applied for and that all documents have been submitted.  It will conduct financial education and coaching to help ensure individuals can maintain their payments and minimize the risk of churn, and conduct educational coaching on health insurance literacy.

Peer Health Exchange

Year: 2015
Amount:$3,846
Boston
Program Area: Catalyst Fund

To enhance an online platform and to purchase a tablet.

Citizens' Housing and Planning Association

Year: 2015
Amount:$50,000
Boston, MA
Program Area: Social Equity and Health

Citizens' Housing and Planning Association (CHAPA) is the leading statewide housing policy and research organization in Massachusetts, whose mission is to encourage the production and preservation of housing that is affordable to low-income families and individuals, and to foster diverse and sustainable communities through planning and community development.  CHAPA, in partnership with the Center for Social Policy (CSP) at the University of Massachusetts Boston, will conduct gap analysis research that will initiate the identification of programmatic and administrative barriers faced by vulnerable residents of the state when they try to use these resources.  While prioritizing health care and housing programs, and also focusing on child care and workforce training and development, CHAPA and CSP will identify the gaps and "disconnects" among existing programs, and identify ways to increase housing, health, and economic outcomes for low-income individuals and families.  Recommendations will be made about administrative, legislative, or regulatory changes that can be made to these eligibility systems, so as to benefit low-income families and individuals who often have to choose between necessities like housing, food, heat, or health care in order to make ends meet. 

Mattapan Community Health Center

Year: 2015
Amount:$5,000
Mattapan
Program Area: Catalyst Fund

To support technology enhancements and create brochures in Haitian Creole and Spanish.

New Hope Inc.

Year: 2015
Amount:$5,000
Attleboro
Program Area: Catalyst Fund

To hire a consultant to work on developing a strategic plain and sustainability framework.

Urban Institute

Year: 2015
Amount:$58,347

Project Directors: Laura Skopec, MS, Principal Investigator and Sharon Long, PhD, Co-Investigator“Community Matters: Understanding the Link Between Community Characteristics and High Uninsurance” is a one year project that will analyze the relationship between community socioeconomic, health system, and environmental conditions and the uninsured rate at the county and sub-county level. In addition, the researchers will assess how the characteristics of high uninsurance communities vary for particular subgroups (such as by age, gender, race and/or ethnicity). Through their work, which will rely on uninsured rates in Massachusetts based on the American Community Survey (ACS) files for 2010-2014 and Census Bureau data that will serve as proxies for community level socioeconomic, health system, and environmental conditions, the team will provide insight into the community characteristics associated with high uninsurance rates. The research team proposes to look at “outlier” communities – those that would be expected to have high levels of uninsurance based on their socioeconomic, health system and environmental conditions but do not, as well as those communities that would be expected to have low levels of uninsurance but do not.