ATLANTA (May 7, 2014) | Sen. Chuck Hufstetler (R- Rome) has accepted an offer to participate as a member of the Policy Advisory Group (PAG) of the Georgia Collaborative on Integrated Care. The Collaborative is co-chaired by Jason Bearden, CEO of Highland Rivers Health and Dr. Peter Buckley, Dean of the Medical College of Georgia, Georgia Regents University.
“I am honored to be invited to participate in this informative and solution based Collaborative over the next 15 months,” said Sen. Hufstetler. “Our state continues to face ongoing obstacles in providing healthcare alternatives relating to mental and substance abuse issues. By coordinating general and behavioral healthcare at facilities across the state, we can begin to gather answers on how best to care for Georgians while also saving finances for taxpayers, consumers and healthcare facilities.”
The Collaborative partakes in learning initiatives on integrated care for local partnerships between safety net primary care and behavioral healthcare providers from around the state. The first phase of the Collaborative successfully established over twenty partnerships encompassing the majority of the state. Sen. Hufstetler will be taking part in phase two of the Collaborative, which seeks to identify and prioritize opportunities to support the achievement of scale for these approaches in areas such as, reimbursement and cost savings, workforce development and program evaluation.
The group was established in 2010 through the cooperative efforts of the Carter Center Mental Health Program, the Georgia Association of Community Service Boards and the Georgia Association for Primary Health Care.
For Immediate Release:
May 7, 2014
For Information Contact:
Jennifer Yarber, Director
Emily Williams, Communications Associate
Emily.williams@senate.ga.gov
404.656.0028