The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) announces the launch of a new program aimed at training more than 1,000 students, residents, fellows and practitioners to better serve Ohioans of all ages enrolled in the Medicaid program. The Ohio Medicaid Technical Assistance and Policy Program (MEDTAPP) Healthcare Access Initiative (HAI) will partner with 15 departments and programs from six of Ohio's foremost colleges and universities with local clinics, nontraditional community-based practice sites, hospitals, mental health clinics and other healthcare sites. The goal is to support the development and retention of healthcare providers to better serve Ohio’s Medicaid population. Participants will also be trained to use emerging healthcare delivery models and evidence-based practices.
“These projects will provide unique and diverse training opportunities,” said Ohio Medicaid Director John McCarthy. “After they graduate, participants will go on to work at clinics in neighborhoods in need of doctors and other healthcare professionals. They can help people there with both their short-term and long-term health needs and help them learn more about what it takes to maintain a healthy lifestyle.”
Ohio Medicaid has secured approximately $2 million in federal funds for this initiative in state fiscal year (SFY) 2012 and more than $8 million in SFY 2013. The MEDTAPP Healthcare Access Initiative is a partnership between Ohio Medicaid, the Ohio Department of Mental Health, the Ohio Department of Health, Ohio Board of Regents and Ohio's colleges and universities. The following university departments and programs will receive MEDTAPP funds:
- The University of Akron – College of Nursing
- Case Western Reserve University – School of Dental Medicine and Departments of Family
- Medicine/MetroHealth System, Pediatrics and Psychiatry
- Kent State University – College of Nursing
- The Ohio State University – Colleges of Dentistry and Nursing, Moms2Be Program, Interdisciplinary Behavioral Health Education Program, Interdisciplinary Curriculum Development Program, and Medicaid Practice Placement and Learning Experiences Partnership Program
- University of Toledo – Department of Psychiatry
- Wright State University – Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Community Psychiatry Collaborative (involving the Departments of Psychiatry, Geriatrics, Community Health and Family Medicine)
The Ohio State University, with an interdisciplinary team including representatives from the College of Medicine, its residency programs in Family Medicine, General Internal Medicine, and Psychiatry and its School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, the Colleges of Social Work, Nursing, Dentistry, Pharmacy and Public Health created Ohio State's MEDTAPP HAI initiative that includes activities in six different project areas described below.
An interdisciplinary curriculum development, coordination, outreach and oversight team will create interdisciplinary educational programs for graduate and undergraduate students focused on serving Medicaid and other low-income populations. The two new programs will target graduate and undergraduate students in health-related disciplines and returning students currently employed in healthcare settings.
The Colleges of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry, Nursing, Social Work and other partners will implement a new paradigm for educating professionals to provide behavioral health services to the underserved, including a lecture/forum series targeted at early engagement of undergraduate health professional, medical, nursing and social work students; integration of psychiatric and physical healthcare; integration of clinical social work and mental-health services; and development of an online Mental Health Services in Primary Care Settings Certificate Program.
The College of Social Work will establish a collaborative, neighborhood-based integrated care field placement opportunity for its students to serve diverse, medically underserved populations, as defined by the Health Services and Research Administration. Advanced clinical graduate students will receive extensive field-based mental health training and supervision, and undergraduate students will be trained as care managers to work collaboratively with community-based healthcare providers.
The Moms2B Program will create non-traditional, community-based practice placement and precepting opportunities in impoverished neighborhoods for family, pediatric, psychiatric and midwifery advanced-practice nursing students, as well as medical, social work, medical dietetics and nutrition students.
The College of Nursing will establish a training center integrating primary and behavioral healthcare. Advanced practice nursing students, including adult nurse practitioners, family nurse practitioners, pediatric nurse practitioners, psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners, women’s health nurse practitioners and nurse midwifery students will be assigned clinical placements, where they will work with faculty preceptors and members of a healthcare team in delivering comprehensive, transdisciplinary integrated primary care. Undergraduate registered-nurse students and graduate advanced-practice nursing students will facilitate health coaching for patients, especially those with chronic disorders.
The Ohio State University leadership will also focus on enhancing healthcare practitioner training partnerships with high-volume Medicaid sites. Specifically, MEDTAPP funding will support the creation of opportunities for many practice placement and learning experiences with Medicaid patients. Participants will include medical students and residents as well as nursing and social work students.
Ohio Medicaid has contracted with the Ohio Colleges of Medicine Government Resource Center to administer the MEDTAPP HAI.
