Zane Networks, an established health technology consulting and application development company, in partnership with MayJuun, a physician-led software development company, were recently awarded a contract from the New Jersey Integrated Care for Kids program (NJ-InCK) to build an online Needs Assessment Tool solution. The NJ-InCK program is funded by a grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s (CMMI’s) Integrated Care for Kids (InCK) initiative. The Needs Assessment Tool (NAT) will contain approximately 15 unique screenings based on the participant’s age and will be used to identify risk factors for physical and behavioral health conditions among program participants.
The InCK Model is part of a multi-pronged strategy to combat the nation’s opioid crisis. The InCK Model is a child-centered local service delivery and state payment model aimed at reducing expenditures and improving the quality of care for children covered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through prevention, early identification, and treatment of priority health concerns like behavioral health challenges and physical health needs and associated social determinant of health. The model will offer states and local providers support to address these priorities through a framework of child-centered care integration across behavioral health, physical health, and other child service providers. The goals of the InCK Model are to improve child health, reduce avoidable emergency department use, inpatient stays and out of home placement, and create sustainable alternative payment models (APMs).
The Needs Assessment Tool will be built using Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), an industry-standard interoperability protocol. As a FHIR based application, the tool allows data to be extracted and ingested in an efficient, flexible manner for care management, information and referral. The patient-facing user interface will be coded in Dart using Flutter, which is Google’s open-source UI toolkit. The assessment tool will be the launching point for creating the cases that will be managed under the NJ-InCK model. Patients and their families can complete the assessment to determine their health complexity score and based on the results, will receive community-based care coordination from the Advanced Care Management Team (ACMT)– a team of community health workers, social workers, and others.
“We are very excited to employ this new flexible approach to technology brought to us by Zane and May Juun. We expect to revolutionize the process of engaging children, youth and families in identifying their strengths and areas of concern so that an interdisciplinary team, starting with their primary care provider and other trusted community organizations such schools and day care facilities can support that child and family in an informed and sensitive manner.” Kristine I McCoy, MD, MPH—NJ InCK Co-PI
Check the following links to learn more information about Zane Networks (www.zanenetworks.com), about MayJuun (mayjuun.com), and about the New Jersey Integrated Care for Kids (NJ-InCK) initiative (njaap.org/programs/njinck).
This NJ InCK project is supported by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as part of an award totaling $2,999,979 in 2020 and $ 2,999,148 in 2021 with 0% percentage financed with non-governmental sources. The contents are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement, by CMS, HHS or the U.S. Government.