Coordinate, Collocate, Collaborate

New White Paper Explores How to Achieve Clinical Integration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 9, 2023

[COLUMBIA, MD] – AbsoluteCare, a healthcare organization that provides care beyond medicine for its members, is pleased to announce the release of “Coordinate, Collocate, Collaborate: How to Achieve Clinical Integration,” by David Applegate, MD; Susan Padrino, MD, and Faith Tarver, Vice President of Behavioral Health.

The new paper explores the connection between behavioral and physical health and the impacts on each made by social determinants of health. Any one of these challenges can be daunting to patients of chronic disease management programs. That’s why having a clinically integrated network is so important for physical health, integrated behavioral health, mental health and social determinants of health.

Instantaneous access to medical information such as medications and medical tests is just one small piece of the puzzle that is a clinically integrated network. “Providers must coordinate with each other and the member,” says Faith Tarver, one of the paper’s authors. “Collocation further increases the patient’s access to follow-up care, but collaboration among providers and members is the key to true clinical integration.”

“AbsoluteCare has a strategy for treating members with complex, chronic conditions, including mental health, behavioral health, and substance use issues,” said Dr. Greg Foti, Chief Medical and Transformation Officer of AbsoluteCare. “This model is built to allow time for the team to work together to address the needs of the whole person.”

Mike Radu, CEO, said, “Our healthcare system is so fragmented as it stands. Typical patients struggle to make and keep one appointment, so referring them to therapists and rehabilitation centers and sending them out for x-rays or IV infusions would cause significant hardship. AbsoluteCare is true clinical integration that meets quality metrics and benchmarks.”

Read “Coordinate, Collocate, Collaborate” here.

About AbsoluteCare

Headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, AbsoluteCare is a leading value-based integrated health services provider. We go beyond medicine™ to provide comprehensive and preventive care (such as integrated behavioral health services and chronic disease management programs) to the most vulnerable populations. AbsoluteCare offers health services using a risk-bearing, PCP-driven care model. We treat the most clinically complex members of the communities we serve—many of whom face challenges that are connected to their mental health and social determinants of health. AbsoluteCare tends exclusively to the needs of the high-risk population who persistently represent a disproportionate amount of unnecessary utilization and cost, regardless of whether they are engaged with other PCPs. We deliver this care in our Comprehensive Care Centers as well as in the communities we serve, providing integrated health services. In our more than 20 years, AbsoluteCare has consistently achieved unprecedented outcomes by addressing medical and psychosocial issues, as well as life’s hardships that exacerbate chronic health conditions and complicate access to care. AbsoluteCare currently operates in seven markets: Baltimore and Prince George’s County, MD; Cleveland and Columbus, OH; New Orleans, LA; and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, PA.

For more information, visit absolutecare.com.