Abstract
The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission created the Targeted Cost Challenge Investments Program (TCCI Program) to “foster innovation in health care payment and service delivery by supporting promising innovations that address the Commonwealth’s most complex health care cost challenges.” The TCCI program provided $6.6 million in funding to ten awardees, who partnered with more than 60 community organizations to conduct 18-month programs designed to address challenges related to social determinants of health, behavioral health integration, post-acute care, serious advancing illness and care at the end of life, and site and scope of care. The goal of the TCCI Care Coordination Case Study was to collect and synthesize participant and provider perspectives on strategies for care coordination tested by four TCCI awardees. All four awardees’ initiatives served vulnerable populations, including those experiencing housing instability, receiving palliative care, and/or living with serious physical and mental health concerns. The aim of exploring these awardees’ approaches to care coordination was to learn more about successful strategies and barriers for meeting these populations’ needs. Overarching study questions were:
» How did the initiative’s care coordination approach create resonance for participants?
» How did the initiative’s care coordination approach create relevance for providers and partners?
To assess the perspective of the awardees and their partners, the study team conducted focus groups with awardee and partner organization staff. Perspectives of participants in awardees’ initiatives were gathered through individual, face-to-face interviews. This case study was designed and written as a complement to the HPC’s comprehensive, mixed-methods evaluation of the TCCI initiatives.