The non-profit Coordinated Care Organization that provides mental and physical health care for Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) members in Yamhill County has officially adopted a new name: Yamhill Community Care Organization (Yamhill CCO).
The change from Yamhill County Care Organization is small, but significant, says Jim Carlough, Yamhill CCO chief executive officer.
“While we are the CCO for Medicaid members living in Yamhill County, we aren’t an agency of Yamhill County,” Carlough says. “We’re a private, nonprofit organization that partners with many public and private community organizations and providers, and the name was confusing for a lot of people.” Yamhill CCO is unusual in the way it was formed by the community and we listen closely to stakeholder and member input and carefully consider the opinions of the community. It's a bottom-up model, with the Community Advisory Council, the Clinical Advisory Panel and the Board working together to discern the needs of the community and how to meet them most effectively, says Jenn Richter, co-chair of the community advisory council.
Yamhill CCO has experienced steady growth since its founding in November 2012. And it has added nearly 7,000 new members since the start of 2014, when Oregon expanded Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Membership now totals approximately 24,000 members.
Yamhill CCO has funded seven “Invest Forward” projects designed to address health needs identified by the community. Additionally, it has worked with the Yamhill Early Childhood Coordinating Council to help set up an Early Learning Hub, one of six approved statewide. Early Learning Hubs help child care providers, pediatricians, schools, social services and public health centers coordinate their efforts to help ensure that children enter public school ready to learn.
In July, Yamhill CCO will begin integrating dental care for members with the physical health and mental health services it already coordinates. It also will be moving into new offices in McMinnville.
About Yamhill Community Care Organization’s Invest Forward projects
- Patient Activation Measure—Software to help providers to evaluate and assist patients to be more engaged in their own health care. The assessment program will be available for providers of Oregon Health Plan members assigned to Yamhill CCO.
- Behaviorists in Primary Care—Funds George Fox University training of experienced mental health clinicians who are studying the integrated care model of practice. The behaviorists will be serving in several clinics in the county.
- Community HUB Project—NorthWest Senior & Disability Service to employ Non-Traditional Health Workers to focus on access and coordination of care to most medically fragile members.
- Care Coordinator and Panel Manager—Physicians Medical Center, McMinnville to hire and train a Care Coordinator and Panel Managers, key members of the patient-centered primary care home model of care.
- Crimson database of patient information—Centralized and protected data repository to allow participating providers to view patient information on recent services performed delivered outside the clinic; to identify opportunities for improving care, for example, when patients are due for a screening exam; and to avoid test duplication. Also provides data for providers to analyze medical services provided locally.
- Project A.B.L.E. Peer Wellness Project—Project A.B.L.E. provides peer-to-peer support services for people with mental health diagnoses or challenges. The Peer Wellness Project uses motivational, learning and wellness tools to help people recognize that actively pursuing personal health can be fun and empowering.
- Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center—Expansion of primary care services in McMinnville to allow for more local engagement and balance the capacity for north county members to access the new site in Newberg.
