SBIR-STTR Award

"Reducing Health Disparities: A Health IT Solution," proposes a collaborative effort to coordinate community stakeholders in Dane County, WI, to integrate a replicable and innovative health IT solution to overcome systemic barriers that exacerbate health disparities and quality of health care for racial and ethnic minorities. Dane county experienced a dramatic decrease in African American infant mortality from the late 90's to 2006. While project partners research and evaluate the causes for the precipitous drop, we propose to built upon a foundation of over a decade of successful health benefits counseling coalition building; care coordination; and benefits training for service providers and create the "next generation" strategy. My Coverage Plan, Inc. and partners ABC for Health Inc. (ABC), development vendor Yahara Software LLC, outpost partners St Mary's Hospital, and select advisors representing the Dane County HealthWatch Coalition, Healthy Beginnings, and The Medical Education Research Committee Infant Mortality Collaborative propose a SBIR project to develop an accessible, webbased, word-intuitive electronic health benefits screening tool called My Coverage Plan (MCP). MCP targets the reduction in primarily three avoidable health disparities: 1) the increased rate of un-insurance (economic); 2) the reduced access to care and coverage for underserved African American or Latino populations (cultural); and 3) the lack of patient-communicated information to providers (knowledge). The specific aims for the project include: 1) Design a dynamic, goal seeking decision support model (DSM); 2) Test a DSM into a prototype software application using "if/then" variable selection to enable health care providers to generate a patient-specific electronic document of healthcare coverage options; 3) Design a software application with a proper operating system configuration and design to ensure security of the system; meet enduser expectations; integrate HIPPA requirements; and comply with HL7 and HITSP interoperability guidelines for Electronic Medical Records systems integration; and 4) Design a prototype appropriate for a provider end user environment, yet replicable in broader applications. Future development phases will: test work flow integration at St. Mary's Hospital, with an available clientele of over 700 low-income individuals a year, of which 30% are Spanishspeaking, 25% are African American, and 25% have a special health care need, to demonstrate a reduced overall number of uninsured. The PI Atty. Robert Peterson is the founder of ABC for Health Inc, Inventor of the MCP process and will be the CEO of MCP Inc. (PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE STATEMENT): "Reducing Health Disparities: A Health IT Solution" proposes a community collaboration to reduce avoidable health disparities and the attendant financial impacts on patients' and health care service providers. My Coverage Plan (MCP) is a web-based, word-intuitive health benefits screening innovation that will generate an electronic coverage record and identify current and future public and private healthcare coverage options. The proper coordination and maximization of public and private sources of health care is a proven strategy to reduce avoidable health disparities and improve population health associated with increased access to healthcare while providing economic stimulus to local and state economies as patients' secure available coverage and avoid medical-debt and uncompensated care.

Thesaurus Terms:
Access To Care; Access To Health Care; Access To Healthcare; Accessibility Of Health Care; Administrator; African American; Afro American; Afroamerican; Availability Of Health Services; Black Populations; Black Or African American; Care, Health; Caring; Collaborations; Communities; Computer Programs; Computer Security; Computer Software; Computerized Medical Record; Counseling; County; Data; Data Banks; Data Bases; Data Sources; Databank, Electronic; Databanks; Database, Electronic; Databases; Decision Support Model; Development; Drops; Economics; Electronic Medical Record; Electronics; Ensure; Environment; Ethnic And Racial Minorities; Fee-For-Service Plans; Fees For Service; Foundations; Future; Goals; Guidelines; Hosp; Health; Health Benefit; Health Care Providers; Health Personnel; Health Services; Health Services Accessibility; Healthcare; Healthcare Providers; Healthcare Worker; Hispanic Populations; Hispanics; Hispanics Or Latinos; Hospitals; Improve Access; Individual; Infant Mortality; Infant Mortality Total; Insurance; Internet; Interview; Knowledge; Latino Population; Learning; Legal; Legal Patent; Link; Live Birth; Low Income; Medical; Medical Education; Medical Record, Computerized; Medical Records; Methods; Minority Groups; Modeling; On-Line Systems; Online Systems; Operating System; Outcome; Prov; Pymt; Patents; Patient-Centered Care; Patients; Phase; Postneonatal Mortality; Process; Programs (Pt); Programs [publication Type]; Provider; Publications; Quality Of Health Care; Quality Of Healthcare; Recommendation; Research; Research Resources; Resources; Sbir; Sbirs (R43/44); Scientific Publication; Screening Procedure; Secure; Services; Small Business Innovation Research; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Software; Solutions; Source; Spanish Origin; Stimulus; System; System, Loinc Axis 4; Systems Integration; Technology; Testing; Time; Training; Uncompensated Care; Uninsured; Vendor; Www; Work; Access To Services; Access To Treatment; Availability Of Services; Black American; Clinical Data Repository; Clinical Data Warehouse; Computer Program/Software; Data Repository; Design; Designing; Expectation; Experience; Health Care Availability; Health Care Personnel; Health Care Quality; Health Care Service; Health Care Service Access; Health Care Service Availability; Health Care Worker; Health Disparities; Health Disparity; Health Provider; Health Services Availability; Healthcare Access Availability; Healthcare Personnel; Healthcare Service Access; Healthcare Service Availability; Hispanic Community; Improved; Innovate; Innovation; Innovative; Interoperability; Medical Personnel; Meetings; Member; Next Generation; Online Computer; Payment; Population Health; Programs; Prototype; Public Health Relevance; Relational Database; Screening; Screenings; Success; System Security; Tool; Treatment Provider; Web; Web Based; World Wide Web

My Coverage Plan Inc. (MCP) proposes to use our newly patented technology to create a commercially viable and nationally replicable suite of software and services for health care providers and other social service agencies that reduces avoidable health disparities and increases provider reimbursements. The MCP health IT solution will help providers proactively identify coverage options for patients with health disparities and help them maintain coverage by generating an electronic health care coverage record. Many Americans lack adequate health care coverage, a statistic especially true of disparity populations. The lack of insurance coverage harms both patients and providers. Patients risk poor medical outcomes and high debt burdens. And providers who serve these patients seldom receive full reimbursement for the medical care provided. Health care systems typically pass these losses to paying consumers and insurers. MCP proposes to address health disparities by offering a replicable software and service package that allows providers to proactively, accurately, and efficiently identify and secure coverage for disparity patients. The complexity inherent with the implementation of health care reform only heightens the need for improved provider services for patients with disparities. During Phase I, MCP established proof of concept and built a prototype of the benefits eligibility screening software. Building on the success of Phase I research and development, MCP proposes the following three aims for Phase II: 1) Expand MCP's screening capacity to fully locate, rank and record optimal public and or private coverage options for disparity patients across the age and disability spectrum; 2) Test and refine the screening tool for cultural and linguistic competence, maximum accuracy, usability and national replication; 3) Demonstrate the positive impact for disparity patients and measure the cost benefits for providers of MCP's offering in multiple settings. MCP is well prepared to carry out this project. MCP's President, Robert "Bobby" Peterson is an attorney and health care financing expert with over 25 years of experience in understanding and navigating complex programs for low-income disparity populations. MCP's parent company, founded by Mr. Peterson, ABC for Health, Inc., has provided health benefits counseling to low-income and minority patients for more than 18 years. Partner, ABC for Health will provide health benefits expertise to inform product development and testing. Other MCP committed partners include urban and rural hospitals and providers that serve disparity populations in Wisconsin.

Public Health Relevance Statement:


Public Health Relevance:
My Coverage Plan, Inc., (MCP) proposes a Phase II renewal of "Reducing Health Disparities: A Health IT Solution" to further demonstrate our software and service strategy that efficiently identifies public and private health coverage options for patient with health disparities across the age and disability spectrum and increase provider reimbursements. MCP demonstrated in Phase I that our software application promotes the proper coordination and maximization of public and private sources of health care and help reduce avoidable health disparities as patients' secure available coverage and avoid medical-debt and uncompensated care and achieve improved health outcomes.

NIH Spending Category:
Basic Behavioral and Social Science; Behavioral and Social Science; Bioengineering; Clinical Research; Health Services; Rural Health

Project Terms:
Address; Age; Algorithms; American; base; Caring; Chronic Care; Client; Clinic; clinical practice; commercialization; Communities; Competence; Complex; Computer software; Continuity of Patient Care; cost; Costs and Benefits; Counseling; County; Decision Modeling; design; disability; Electronics; Eligibility Determination; Enrollment; Ensure; experience; Funding; Future; Health; Health Benefit; health care cost/financing; Health Care Reform; health disparity; health literacy; Health Personnel; Healthcare; Healthcare Systems; Hospitals; improved; informant; Insurance Carriers; Insurance Coverage; Interview; Language; Lawyers; Legal patent; Linguistics; Logic; Low income; Marketing; Measures; Medical; Mental Health; Minority; Monitor; Outcome; Parents; patient population; Patient risk; Patients; Phase; Population; product development; programs; prototype; Provider; public health relevance; Research; research and development; Role; Rural; Rural Health; Rural Hospitals; Sales; satisfaction; screening; Secure; Services; Social Work; Solutions; Source; Staging; statistics; Substance abuse problem; success; Surveys; Technology; Testing; tool; Training; Uncompensated Care; United States National Institutes of Health; Urban Hospitals; usability; Wisconsin