This consortium of organizations was funded by the CMS Innovation Center for $18 million over 3 years to spread and evaluate an expanded version of the collaborative care model used in the Minnesota DIAMOND Initiative for depression throughout Minnesota and seven partners in six other states. This new care model will enroll 8,000+ patients with depression plus diabetes or cardiovascular disease who also are covered by Medicare or Medicaid, and do so within 15 months of funding. We are responsible to collect data that will document that the model is well-implemented and improves care quality, patient experience and health, provider satisfaction, and total healthcare costs. We also need to develop training materials for the new care roles involved and to identify the implementation and operational costs so we can create a financial model that will sustain the care model.
Although not specifically a research project, this innovation will require extensive documentation, monitoring, and evaluation, including regular feedback to care sites about the extent to which the care model is being implemented so that adjustments and improvements can be made. It requires a high degree of integration and cooperation between the intervention and evaluation. To add to the complexity of the evaluation, a national evaluation group will be contracted by CMS to combine our data (including variables that they will specify) with data from the other 106 grantees to produce an overall national analysis of the impacts of this initiative on the triple aim of care, costs, and experience.