PHI Awarded NY State Balancing Incentive Program Grant to Improve Care Transitions for Elders and People with Disabilities
— Specially Trained "Care Connection Aide" and Telehealth Interventions Will Stabilize Care at Home and Reduce Emergency Room and Hospital Admissions —
Bronx, NY — PHI has been named an awardee of the New York State Balancing Incentive Program (BIP) Innovation Fund for its $1.9 million "Care Connection Project" to improve care transitions in Medicaid-funded home and community-based services through the use of specially trained advanced aides and telehealth technology interventions.
The project aims to foster stability within the home environment and reduce preventable emergency room visits and hospital readmissions for more than 1,100 Brooklyn-, Queens-, and Bronx-based members of Independence Care System (ICS), a nonprofit Medicaid managed long-term care organization that serves elders and people living with disabilities.
"PHI is thrilled to be awarded a Balancing Incentive Program contract that will make it possible to build on our work developing advanced roles for home care aides — an underutilized resource in our health care system," said PHI President Jodi M. Sturgeon.
"An advanced Care Connection Aide position that maximizes the value and impact of the interactions among home care workers and consumers, their family members, and the care team, will be a critical intervention that improves the quality and efficiency of care for elders and people with disabilities."
PHI has partnered with three home care agencies: Cooperative Home Care Associates (CHCA), Jewish Association Serving the Aging (JASA), and Sunnyside Community Services, to provide specialized training to create eight Care Connection Aides. These aides will support ICS members, their home care workers, and family caregivers.
The Care Connection Aides will be embedded within each partnering home care agency's system and make home care visits to support the ICS member's Interdisciplinary Care Team in stabilizing the member's care at home. Through the project, the Aides will be trained specifically to:
- Perform home visits to support ICS members in promoting health;
- Strengthen relationships with and between members, family members, and home care workers;
- Provide specific support for family caregivers;
- Provide mentoring support to home care workers in the field; and
- Serve as a resource to the interdisciplinary care team.
"PHI looks forward to sustaining — and expanding — the interventions of the Balancing Incentive Program project within our system over the long term," Sturgeon said.
Both ICS and CHCA are affiliated with PHI.
For more information about advanced roles for aides, visit the PHI website.
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PHI, the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, works to transform eldercare and disability services, fostering dignity, respect, and independence — for all who receive care, and all who provide it. The nation's leading authority on the direct-care workforce, PHI promotes quality direct-care jobs as the foundation for quality care.
Deane Beebe, PHI Media Relations Director; 718-928-2033; 646-285-1039 (cell)
