Health Care Innovation Awards Round Two: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Project Profile

Project Title: "Better Back Care: A Comprehensive Strategy for Improving Function and Outcomes While Reducing Overutilization and Costs"
Geographic Reach: North Carolina
Estimated Funding Amount: $6,034,888

Summary:

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill project will test the implementation of Better Back Care (BBC), a new care delivery model for new onset low back pain that aims to improve the patient's experience and outcomes, reduce cost of case, and deliver a supporting outpatient bundled payment methodology. BBC leverages evidence-based care in a medical neighborhood of primary and specialty care providers through a patient-centered coordinated care model that supports and educates patients and includes them in treatment decisions. The model will utilize patient education and shared decision making tools, as well as nurse patient navigators, who will coordinate with primary care providers. Over the award period, BBC aims to improve adherence to evidence-based, patient-centered practices leading to improved clinical outcomes and satisfactions, while reducing the usage of imaging, injections, and surgery for patients in a five-county area of North Carolina. BBC plans to create a medical neighborhood linking approximately 60 primary care providers in general internal medicine, family medicine, and geriatrics, with the UNC spine program, an extensive multidisciplinary team of 10 specialty providers employing evidence-based, patient-centered approaches.

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