APA To Launch Training Under Federal Integrated Care Grant
Abstract
The first levels of collaborative care training under the $2.9 million federal grant will be available to psychiatrists via seven online modules and full-day, in-person training sessions at APA’s 2016 annual meeting and IPS: The Mental Health Services Conference.
APA is launching online training modules and offering in-person training at APA’s 2016 annual meeting in Atlanta to teach psychiatrists the skills necessary to practice in collaborative care. In-person training also will be available in October at the 2016 IPS: The Mental Health Services Conference.
The initiative is part of the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative (TCPI), a $2.9 million, four-year federal grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). APA is one of just 39 organizations chosen to participate in the TCPI.
Training will be available at five levels. The first level is an introduction to the collaborative care model, a specific model of integrated care developed by the late Wayne Katon, M.D., Jürgen Unützer, M.D., M.P.H., and others at the AIMS (Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions) Center at the University of Washington. The second level will teach the specific skills necessary to participate in collaborative care, and a third level is a “learning collaborative” in which participants will work with other psychiatrists and primary care physicians around the country to share ideas and learn from each other.
CMS to Move Toward Paying for Integration
Proliferation of the collaborative care model into primary care practices has been hampered by the lack of a reimbursement mechanism to pay for the services provided. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in July 2015 that it will be moving toward payment for evidence-based collaborative care, such as those models reviewed by the Cochrane Collaboration.
APA will be meeting with CMS officials to provide information on the costs and work associated with those models.
APA anticipates that coverage by CMS for collaborative care services could occur as early as January 1, 2017, through the use of CMS-developed Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) codes. APA has also developed and recently submitted a CPT coding proposal to the AMA CPT Editorial Panel to create CPT codes describing the service (Psychiatric News, October 2, 2015).
The fourth and fifth levels will be devoted to teaching psychiatrists how they can be “thought champions” and leaders of integrated care initiatives within their geographic regions.
Levels one and two will be available to psychiatrists via seven online modules and full-day, in-person training sessions at the 2016 annual meeting and IPS: The Mental Health Services Conference (see sidebar for dates). Level three will be available at the end of 2016, and levels four and five will be available in 2017.
The collaborative care model is a focus of the training because this model has, by far, the largest body of evidence for effectiveness, with more than 80 randomized, controlled trials demonstrating its benefits. Benefits of practicing in the model include greater professional flexibility for psychiatrists as they are able to practice part time in the model and increased access for patients by allowing psychiatrists more time to care for sicker patients.
TCPI is providing 39 national and regional collaborative health care transformation networks and supporting organizations with $685 million to achieve the following aims:
Support more than 140,000 clinicians in their practice transformation work.
Build the evidence based on practice transformation so that effective solutions can be scaled.
Improve health outcomes for millions of Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries and other patients.
Reduce unnecessary hospitalizations for 5 million patients.
Sustain efficient care delivery by reducing unnecessary testing and procedures.
Generate $1 billion to $4 billion in savings to the federal government and commercial payers.
Transition 75 percent of practices completing the program to participate in Alternative Payment Models.
“Supporting doctors and other health care professionals as they change the way they work is critical to improving quality and spending our health care dollars more wisely,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell in a statement last September when the TCPI award winners were announced.
Get Trained in Collaborative Care
There are two ways psychiatrists can receive training in collaborative care from APA under the grant for the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative:
Online modules—free CME credits (8 total). Register at here.
APA annual meeting—free course with CME credits (8 total). The course is titled “Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care: Practical Skills for the Consulting Psychiatrist.” Select one of three full-day training sessions when registering: Sunday, May 15, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Monday, May 16, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Tuesday, May 17, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. You must be registered for the annual meeting to register for one of the courses. Registration and other annual meeting information can be accessed here.
TCPI supports medical group practices, regional health care systems, regional extension centers, and national medical professional association networks through two components: Practice Transformation Networks (PTNs), which are peer-based learning networks that support clinicians as they work to transform clinical practice; and Support and Alignment Networks (SANs), which include national and regional professional medical associations (such as APA) and public-private partnerships to provide a system for workforce development and practice transformation.
(The TCPI project is supported by Funding Opportunity Number CMS-1L1-15-002 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The contents provided are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of HHS or any of its agencies.)
As a SAN, APA will support practice transformation by training psychiatrists in collaborative care in partnership with the AIMS Center at the University of Washington through seven online modules and in-person trainings. Once psychiatrists are trained, APA will help connect them with PTNs within their region. ■
APA’s SAN is managed by the APA Division of Policy, Programs, and Partnerships, APA Department of Education, and AIMS Center at the University of Washington. For more information, contact [email protected]. To register for trainings or learn more about APA’s SAN, click here. Connect to the TCPI Knowledge Portal to stay abreast of TCPI activities, access practice transformation resources, and connect with others here.
