UC (OH UCEDD), Partners Awarded Funding to Address Health Care Gaps

August 6, 2014

The University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Nursing, along with the UC College of Medicine and partners at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and UC's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, has received almost $1 million to develop programs to grow in number and better prepare practitioners to meet the primary care and mental health care needs of the Ohio Medicaid population.

The 14-month award is on behalf of the Ohio Department of Medicaid and will utilize Medicaid Technical Assistance and Policy Program (MEDTAPP) federal financial participation (FFP) funds to support UC's participation in the MEDTAPP Healthcare Access Initiative. UC's MEDTAPP Healthcare Access Initiative project will be led by the College of Nursing's Suzanne Perraud, PhD, principal investigator, and Diana McIntosh, PhD, co-principal investigator. While UC is receiving $965,000 in MEDTAPP FFP funds to support this work, the university will also be providing $1,063,000 in cost share.

"The funding from MEDTAPP will help us to recruit and retain practitioners who will serve the Ohio Medicaid population," says Perraud, senior associate dean for academic affairs at the College of Nursing. "And because the nature of health care is interprofessional-and chronic and mental illness are often seen together, and across the lifespan-it's extremely important that we work in a multidisciplinary way to achieve this goal."

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