Voices for Better Health (VBH) - History
Early Beginnings
Voices for Better Health started in 2013 when five states (Michigan, New York, Ohio, Washington, and Rhode Island) pursued a federal demonstration initiative to address older adults eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. Community Catalyst, a national non-profit advocacy organization working to build and transform the American health system, funded and helped to start Voices for Better Health.
Dual-eligible Medicare-Medicaid recipients
Dual-eligible Medicare-Medicaid recipients are some of the poorest and most vulnerable residents in Rhode Island and suffer from high levels of chronic health conditions compared to the general population. Ineffective care coordination between the Medicare and Medicaid programs had led to poor care and high costs for this population.
Integrated Care Initiative (ICI)
In Rhode Island, the (ICI) was developed to align financing and care delivery. To ensure that the voices of impacted consumers were heard in the design, promotion and ongoing implementation of the ICI, VBH collaborating partners led an effort to establish a Consumer ICI Implementation Advisory Council. This Council was composed of and governed by ICI consumers who met monthly to receive data reports on enrollment and disenrollment, call center metrics, complaints and other issues impacting the dual-eligible population such as transportation and benefit programs.
The ICI has a nine-year history of working to improve the health care outcomes of enrolled dual-eligible Medicare-Medicaid recipients and the Consumer Advisory Implementation Council has been instrumental in its success at providing consumer-centric care..
Our Partners
