St. Joseph Health Center Earns Distinction in Integrated Behavioral Health from National Organization

On May 9, the team at St. Joseph Health Center, affiliate of CharterCARE, and Prospect Health System’s PCMH Specialist, Elizabeth Caruso, received word the Center had received Distinction in Integrated Behavioral Health from NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance). NCQA is a private, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving health care quality.  

This achievement was the culmination of more than a year’s worth of work by the St. Joseph Health Center team working in collaboration with CTC-RI. St. Joseph Health Center is located in Providence, on the campus of Roger Williams Medical Center.

PCMH Distinction in Behavioral Health Integration helps practices provide comprehensive whole person care that acknowledges the behavioral health needs of the individual beyond the core requirements of NCQA PCMH Recognition. These practices have proven that they have the appropriate care team in place to manage the broad needs of patients with conditions related to behavioral health.  

As part of its Medicaid Accountable Entity (AE) initiative, Prospect Health Services RI (PHSRI) has contracted with CTC-RI to expand the number of primary care practices in their AE that offer Integrated Behavioral Health (IBH). The purposeful expansion of IBH is part of the focus Prospect’s independent physician association, PHSRI, puts on improving health management at the population level.

In the first year of the program, five practices participated in the nine-month IBH Practice Facilitation, led by Kristin David: three CharterCARE Medical Associates practices (Associates in Primary Care, Cranston, and Warwick), and both the adult and pediatric primary care practices of St. Joseph Health Center.

“Many times behavioral health conditions are first identified by a primary care provider,” said Margaret E. O’Kane, NCQA President. “So adding behavioral health care services in a primary care setting is a real opportunity for patients. It knocks down barriers to behavioral care and improves overall health.”  

St. Joseph Health Center had previous experience with integrated behavioral health, but with the support of Kristin and the IBH practice facilitation process, they were able to strengthen their overall program by establishing new workflows, adopting best practices, improving coding and billing, strengthening communication, all with the goal of improving care and patient outcomes.

“We had a good IBH program in place to begin with, but working with CTC-RI allowed us to really look at what we were doing and how we could improve everything,” says Kate Noveau LICSW, System Director of Outpatient and Integrated Behavioral Health. “We are now working more efficiently and having a bigger, positive impact on our patients.”

SJHC started the process with a fully bi-lingual clinician already on staff, Cindy Rojas, MSW, LICSW. Cindy had been a student in the Integrated Behavioral Health track at Rhode Island College School of Social Work, where Kate Noveau was a professor.

Cindy Rojas spoke about the importance of receiving this recognition. "The Distinction in Integrated Behavioral Health signifies our dedication at St. Joseph Health Center to deliver patient-centered care, ensuring that mental health is given the same priority as physical health, and that patients receive comprehensive support for their overall well-being. I am grateful for the collaborative efforts of our team that made this achievement possible.”

The SJHC team knew from the start they wanted to pursue IBH Distinction. With Kristin’s guidance, and support from Elizabeth Caruso who has years of experience navigating NCQA certification processes, the SJHC team made sure they would be ready to submit an application to NCQA shortly after completing their nine-months of work with Kristin.

“The St. Joseph team was well prepared, thanks to their work with Kristin,” says Elizabeth Caruso. “This is quite an achievement and is a real testament to hours and hours of work devoted to this project.”

Nelly Burdette, Psy.D. CTC-RI Senior Director, Integrated Behavioral Health, says: “Thanks to the support from Prospect, integrated care that is evidence-based, high quality and in line with national benchmarks can spread through primary care. Congratulations to all of the practices getting and moving towards NCQA Distinction in Integrated Care."

SJHC is the second PHSRI practice to earn this prestigious recognition. The CCMA practice Associates in Primary Care earned IBH Distinction in 2021.