Harm reduction training

On November 18th, the CareNet team hosted its first harm reduction training which works from the principles of acceptance and empowerment, starting “where the client is,” and moving the client in the direction of better health and responsibility. The event provided an effective forum for dialogue, sharing tools and best practices, and creating relationships between … Read more

Pilot connects 69 residents to PCPs

On November 1, the Blue Cross Complete Pilot evaluation was published. In the program, over 700 outreach calls were made, and 69 appointments were made for newly insured Medicaid enrollees at Packard Health. The evaluation found that 34 percent of members had an appointment with their Primary Care Physician within the program period or post … Read more

Assessing the needs of safety net clinics

On January 4th, the WHI Safety Net Clinic Coordination team met for the first time. The group began with an assessment of the current state of safety net clinics in the county and identified six priority areas: 1) staffing, 2) mental health and substance use disorders, 3) patient advocate services, 4) revenue cycle management, 5) … Read more

Care Net and BCC Pilot launch

The Care Manager Network for Vulnerable Patients, also known as Care Net, began on January 1st, 2013. The team originally formed to investigate if there were enough care managers in Washtenaw County. Once identifying that Washtenaw County had sufficient care managers, the team worked to create a program that would coordinate these individuals. Specifically, CareNet … Read more

First care navigation efforts

The Care Navigation Implementation team met for the first time on April 4th. The group was tasked to review all care management projects across Washtenaw County to guide a future project proposal.

Docs for new Medicaid enrollees

In the spring, the Primary Care workgroup announced that the University of Michigan Health System’s  Ypsilanti Family Medicine health care center would serve as a primary care provider pilot site for the BlueCaid project, also known as Blue Cross Complete. The project aimed to connect new Medicaid enrollees to primary care physicians within 90 days … Read more

Meeting the need for doctors

On September 28th, the Primary Care Capacity Subcommittee met for the first time. In response to an increasing number of residents eligible for health insurance, their focus would be developing a phased approach to increase primary care capacity in Washtenaw County.

Seven new projects

At the June 28th Steering Committee meeting, the WHI leaders formally outlined seven projects: Primary Care Navigation; Care Navigation; Dental Acute Care Expansion; Dental Reduced Fee Program; Streamlining Medicaid Eligibility as a Beta Test for the State; Medicaid Enrollment; and Community Outreach for Medicaid Enrollment. The projects’ goals and objectives were shared by the two … Read more

First WHI committees

By Monday, March 7th, during an early meeting of WHI Steering Committee members at the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation (CHRT) in Ann Arbor, four committees had been established: primary care capacity, dental care, mental health and substance use disorder care, and health insurance enrollment. On the same day, the Dental Care subcommittee had … Read more