Agenda - 03-06-1996 - IX-B - Laserfiche WebLink

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t ® 3 THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILT. The School of Medicine The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Department of Family Medicine Department of Family Medicine 919-966-3889(phone) Manning Drive,Campus Box 7595 919-966-6125 (fax) Chapel Hill,NC 27599-7595 January 29, 1996 Eileen Kugler Director, Personal Health Division Orange County Health Department P.O. Box 8181, 300 W. Tryon Street Hillsborough, NC 27278 Dear Ms. Kugler, We are writing to request your assistance in developing a Maternity Care Coordination pilot project for our UNC Family Practice Center Patients. We would like to negotiate a one year contract with Orange County Health Department to provide a full time position for an MSW prepared maternity care coordinator based at the Family Practice Center. This would allow us to provide maternity care coordination for women receiving prenatal care in our setting. We have spoken with Lynda Dixon and Dennis Williams have received support from the Division of Medical Assistance. Bruce Nelson,a social work graduate student,has worked with us in identifying barriers to care for our prenatal patients. We anticipate 175 births within our practice during the present academic year and have documented that anywhere from 25-35% of our patients are on Medicaid at any given time.Our lowest estimate would then be from 42-60 patients on Medicaid during a given year. However, we do not know how many more women are eligible for Medicaid(either full coverage or for coverage of expenses not reimbursed by private insurance). It became quickly apparent to us that the lack of maternity care coordination often resulted in missed appointments,poor follow up,and lack of support for psychosocial problems. It is becoming more and more evident that our clients need an onsite Maternity Care Coordinator because we do not have the resources necessary to provide the same services. We have utilized the services of the MCC's in all of the surrounding counties (Orange, Durham, Alamance, Chatham) as well as Piedmont Health Services. It is impossible to refer everyone so we find ourselves calling for assistance after a crisis has occurred rather than being able to anticipate problems. We would like for the person in this position to provide case management services during prenatal clinic visits and home visits according to state MCC guidelines. Since our projected numbers would not support a full time position,we would like to utilize the MSW to provide intensive psychosocial counseling also according to state guidelines.