Lifelong Personal Healthcare: The Lifelong Personal Health Care (LPHC) model is a redesign of primary care expected to promote quality of care while stemming unaffordable medical costs. LPHC is based on the strengths of behavioral health to actively manage an individual’s health promotion and health management needs. Behavioral health care is central to this model because of the importance of patient behavior and behavioral health in health status, wellness, disease management, and health care. LPHC team care involves patients, families, physicians, psychologists, care coordinators, behavioral health clinicians, and office staff working in partnership to achieve wellness by promoting health as well as managing disease. Together, the team jointly assesses, formulates, diagnoses and prioritizes care targets and needs, and determines intervention plans. Unique aspects of the LPHC approach include integrated behavioral/medical care management is part of standard care, not just for patients with chronic conditions or other identified targets; care management that is explicitly, fully divided into administrative and clinical; and clinical care management performed by a psychologist.

Psychological Centers has been funded by a Rhode Island Foundation Strategy Grant to support this 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.