Project ACCELERATE (Advancing Care Coordination through Evidence; Leveraging Existing Relationships Around Transforming PracticE)

Nearly 20% of all children in the United States have a special health care need (i.e., asthma, ADD, disability) requiring health care services and support beyond what children normally require. These children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN) receive services and supports from a multitude of systems: Medicaid, state Maternal & Children Health (MCH)/Title V/CYSHCN Programs, primary and specialty care, and mental health, among others. Effective coordination of care and health services across these systems is key to ensuring the unique needs of CYSHCN and their families are met. Policy-relevant patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) is the foundation with which advanced care coordination practice is built.

To increase the reach of PCOR and facilitate its use, AcademyHealth’s Evidence-Informed State Health Policy Institute, with support from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), will bring together members of the Medicaid Medical Directors Network (MMDN) , MCH/Title V Directors, and patient advocates, in state teams, to distill the latest PCORI-supported findings related to enhanced care coordination for CYSHCN and identify strategies best suited for their state-specific landscapes for dissemination.

Project ACCELERATE’s (Advancing Care Coordination through Evidence; Leveraging Existing Relationships Around Transforming PracticE) objective to harvest and foster PCOR applications will be guided by the following aims:

1. Enhance dissemination mechanisms between Medicaid Medical Directors (MMDs) and MCH/Title V Directors to advance the use of PCOR evidence in policy decision-making and care delivery;
2. Establish an Advisory Committee to include additional CYSHCN experts to extend the learnings; and
3. Expand the reach of the key stakeholder partnerships through existing channels, (i.e., the National Care Coordination Academy (NCCA) and Family Voices).

Project ACCELERATE, in the short-term, will elevate PCORI-funded research to MMDs, MCH/Title V Directors, and families to facilitate this information use in their decision-making. Medium-to-long term outcomes may yield advanced implementation of PCORI evidence to accelerate delivery system transformations that further improve care coordination and ultimately impact health outcomes for CYSHCN. Working collaboratively with the NCCA and Family Voices ensures meaningful stakeholder engagement from start to finish.