CRANSTON – The messaging is deceptively simple: “Recovery is a journey. We’re here to help you navigate the road to health.”

The name is somewhat mundane: HealthPath.

The setting is modest: a non-descript third floor of an office building at 75 Sockanosset Crossing.

The location is a bit paradoxical: clinical offices for a new pilot program for a collaborative, redesigned mental health care delivery system for commercially insured patients, surrounded by consumer temptations and shopping pleasures that beckon.

HealthPath’s new offices sit in the shadows of the upscale Chapel View shopping mecca, including Alex and Ani’s headquarters and flagship store. A stone’s throw up the street is a Whole Foods market, the Wines and More liquor store, and Garden City Center.

But the outcomes sought are transformational: a patient-centered continuum of mental health care delivery, delivered by a team of psychiatrists, therapists and case managers, with customized services for each patient, paid for with one monthly copayment.

The innovative, two-year pilot program is a collaborative initiative between Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island, Care New England and Butler, its psychiatric hospital, and Continuum Behavioral Health, a for-profit division of The Providence Center.

The initiative grew out of an ongoing strategic partnership between Care New England and Blue Cross to develop a patient-centered approach to health care in Rhode Island.

“We wanted to start first with the state’s most vulnerable population, the seriously mentally ill, the state’s must vulnerable population,” said Dennis Keefe, president and CEO of Care New England, talking at the official ceremony marking the opening of HealthPlan on March 6. “I think you all know that the incidence of mental illness in Rhode Island is amongst the highest in the nation, if not the highest.”

What better way is there for us to invest our resources, he continued, adding that he was particularly proud of the effort. “We’re starting at the right place. This is truly meaningful for Rhode Island, something that we’ll be able to look back on with pride and accomplishment.”

Further, Keefe added, it demonstrated what can be achieved when leaders come together and agree to collaborate and cooperate to make a better health care system for all. “That’s the other thing that you’ll notice,” he said, with humor. “We actually like each other.”

Twin brothers from different mothers
Peter Andruszkiewicz, president and CEO of Blue Cross, began as he often begins his public presentations, stating the obvious facts about the broken health care system.

“We all know, and we’ve known for years, that the system as it exists today is broken, it’s broken badly, and it’s not just about the financing,” he said.

“It doesn’t really work that well for patients,” Andruszkiewicz continued, saying that there were not great health outcomes or great patient satisfaction. “We don’t get any of those things. It is not only not a great system, we can’t afford it.”

The new initiative between Blue Cross and Care New England, the health insurer executive said, grew out of the realization that no one can transform the health care system alone. “Our customers are saying, we can’t pay any more. We’ve paying you plenty. [Premium] levels have increased two and three times [the Consumer Price Index] for decades; it’s too much. Take the money you’ve got in the system and figure out a better way to create these new approaches. And that’s exactly what this collaboration is all about.”

Andruszkiewicz promised that there was more to come with Blue Cross’s strategic partnership with Care New England. He likened their relationship to being “twin brothers from different mothers.”

Applying the lessons learned from community health centers
The model for HealthPlan is very much the same system that was created by community health centers to treat behavioral health for the Medicaid population, according to Dale Klatzker, president and CEO of The Providence Center.

“We know how to do this, we’ve been doing it for a long, long time, way under the radar,” Klatzker said, talking about his 35 years in nonprofit behavioral health care. “To our knowledge, there isn’t another model like this anywhere in the country, with a commercial insurer.”

This is a model, Klatzker continued, “that’s been in place for the Medicaid population for years. It’s great to be able to take ‘technology’ that’s proven and use it a commercially insured population.”

Among the services that could be included in an individualized patient care plan include:
• Psychiatric care
• Primary care
• Therapy and counseling
• Health and wellness care
• Life skills support
• Medication management
• Transportation to and from medical appointments, if necessary
• Access to your team when you need it
• Specialized care in case of an emergency after hours or on weekends and holidays

The services are only available to adult members of Blue Cross who choose to enroll in HealthPlan. The system will serve up to 230 commercially insured clients at a given time., according to Ian Lang, the executive director of Continuum Behavioral Health.

The services and support would be paid by one monthly copayment.

The new system, Klatzker said, is focused around answering some basic questions: What is the patient’s experience like? How can we make that experience simpler? How can we eliminate any roadblocks they are experiencing the right kind of care? How can we invest as much in support as we do in services? How can we focus on recovery and overall wellness? And, how can we give people hope?

“These are not rocket science ideas,” Klatzker continued. “But they are fundamentally about people getting better, and feeling better.”