Yale New Haven Health’s Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation receives the CT Disparities Grant for 2017

NEW HAVEN (February 16, 2017) – Yale New Haven Health’s Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) has been honored by the Connecticut Health Foundation, Inc. (CT Health) with the CT Disparities Grant for 2017.

The grant provides funding to design a new approach to assessing healthcare disparities for the Connecticut Department of Social Services. “The State of Connecticut is in the midst of implementing an ambitious and important effort to transform healthcare for Connecticut residents,” said Susannah M. Bernheim, MD, quality measurement program director for the Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) at Yale New Haven Hospital and assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine.

One of the central aims of the State Innovation Model (SIM) is to eliminate health inequities. With this grant, we are proposing to develop a measurement approach to assess health care disparities to be used within the Person Centered Medical Home Plus (PCMH+), Connecticut Medicaid’s Shared Savings Program. These measures of disparities in care will allow the PCMH+ Program to directly assess and reward PCMH+ participating providers’ efforts to improve health care disparities. This work also has the potential to provide a model for other states and payers nationally to improve health care disparities.

CT Health’s president and CEO, Patricia Baker, added, “This project represents innovation and national leadership. As we implement these health equity measures for Connecticut, we will be creating a path forward for other states to start using quality metrics as a vehicle to move closer to health equity.”

With this funding, the team at CORE will work closely with the Department of Social Services and the SIM Program Management Office in designing and testing the new methods for assessing health care quality disparities.

The Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) is the state’s largest independent health philanthropy dedicated to improving lives by changing health systems. Since it was established in 1999, the foundation has supported innovative grant-making, and public policy research technical assistance and convening to achieve its mission – to improve the health of the people of Connecticut. Over the past 17 years, CT Health has awarded grants totaling close to $59 million in 45 cities and towns throughout the state. In 2013, CT Health announced a five-year strategic plan that made expanding health equity the foundation’s central focus. For CT Health, health equity means facilitating people’s access to better care, especially people of color and underserved populations. Better care includes physical, mental, and oral health. For more information about CT Health, please visit www.cthealth.org or 860.724.1580.