Center for Integrated Care

Psychological Centers offers on-site (“co-located”) behavioral health services in medical offices to improve patients’ access to behavioral health services and improve medical outcomes by effectively addressing the role of behaviors (e.g., diet, exercise, tobacco use, and life stress) in medical conditions. Behavioral health clinicians offer evaluation and diagnoses, consultation, brief and ongoing treatment, and integration of behavioral and medical care.

In 2003, 2004, and 2005, Psychological Centers received funding from the Rhode Island Foundation to develop integrated behavioral/primary care medical services at Thundermist Health Center and Hillside Avenue Medicine. “Best Practices for Integration of Behavioral Services into Primary Care” evaluated immediate access and scheduled consultations with behavioral providers as models for integrating care.

In 2007, Psychological Centers received funding from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) to pilot co-located behavioral health services at OB-GYN Associates in Providence, Pediatric Associates in East Providence, University Family Medicine in East Greenwich, and University Medicine Foundation on North Main Street in Providence. The goals of the Blue Cross pilots were to increase interaction, communication, collaboration, and integration of care between behavioral health and medical providers in ways that patients would experience as behavioral health and medical services being indistinguishable. The pilot sites, like all of Psychological Centers’ co-located sites, increased immediate and same day access to consultation and screening. A major focus for Blue Cross was “behavioral medicine”, treatment to bring about behavioral changes that improve medical health.  All four sites continued as co-located practices after completion of the Blue Cross project.

Again, in 2009, Psychological Centers was funded by the Rhode Island Foundation to support our Lifelong Personal Healthcare project, designing a fully integrated primary care team practice in which behavior change and clinical care management are provided by a behavioral health clinician.  This funding is particularly timely, given the efforts underway by major health insurers and the Health Insurance Commissioner, among others, to redirect medical care towards primary care, team management of chronic conditions, and improved management of health related behaviors.  For more information, including a comprehensive description of how this practice transforms the way primary care is delivered but is viable with existing funding, visit our informational website: http://lphc.wordpress.com.

Presentation introducing LPHC to the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative, Behavioral Health Task Force 5/17/2012:

Lifelong Personal Healthcare (LPHC)- a fully integrated medical home model

Specific practices where Psychological Centers staff offer on-site behavioral health services are listed below:

  • Bald Hill Pediatrics
  • Center for OB/GYN, Providence
  • Coastal Medical, Wakefield
  • Coastal (Narragansett Bay) Pediatrics
  • East Greenwich Family Medicine
  • East Greenwich Spine & Sport
  • Hillside Avenue Family and Community Medicine (Pawtucket)
  • Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Cranston
  • Pediatric Associates, East Providence
  • Portsmouth Medical Center
  • RI Rehabilitation Center: Therapy & Wellness for Women
  • Smithfield Pediatrics
  • University Medicine Foundation (Governor Street & North Main Street, Providence)
  • Wood River Health Services

For doctors interested in offering Psychological Centers services in their practice, read about the advantages here.

To learn more about our program of efforts to develop infrastructure, procedure, and measures to support effective on-site and off-site collaboration between behavioral health and medical providers, read Psychological Centers program to support collaborative care and our training model, Training model for primary care behavioral health workforce to decrease healthcare disparities.

To learn more about national limits on the effectiveness of efforts to integrate behavioral health into patient-centered medical homes, read the Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative behavioral health task force presentation of an NCQA supported study: NCQA-CCRN survey of behavioral health in patient-centered medical homes Dec 2011

RIPCPC communication forms (initial, monthly, and discharge notes for behavioral health providers to coordinate care with PCPs)

Directions for applicants to print CAQH application is listed below. Please also include attachments such as current liability insurance (see direction #2)

1. To Print CAQH application:
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Click on the “Attest” tab
Click “Review”
Print PDF file of your application
2. To Print Attachments (like current liability insurance)
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Click on the “Attachments” tab
Scroll down to “Supporting documents recieved”
Print liability insurance documentation
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