N.C. Medicaid MCO Partners With Cityblock for Comprehensive Care
Alliance Health, a managed care organization responsible for approximately 135,000 Medicaid-eligible members across North Carolina, is partnering with Cityblock, a value-based healthcare provider for Medicaid and dually eligible beneficiaries.
Through this partnership, Cityblock will provide comprehensive, integrated medical and behavioral care to members with serious mental illness and/or substance use disorder enrolled in Alliance Health’s Behavioral Health and Intellectual/Development Disability (BH I/DD) Tailored Plan.
The partnership launched in Mecklenburg, Cumberland, and Wake counties on July 1, 2024 and coincides with the state’s ongoing Medicaid transformation efforts. Cityblock has been operating in North Carolina since 2021 and has community clinics in Charlotte, Fayetteville, High Point, Greensboro and Winston-Salem.
Alliance Health is responsible for ensuring that some of the most vulnerable members of the North Carolina Medicaid system receive timely access to specialized care to address their overall health and well-being. With a lengthy history as a behavioral health managed care organization, Alliance Health has developed a network of service providers that delivers an array of community-based and innovative services for individuals with severe and persistent mental illness, substance use disorders, and intellectual and developmental disabilities.
As a fully integrated BH I/DD Tailored Plan, Alliance Health has expanded its network to include primary care providers, specialists, ancillary health providers, and pharmacies, and contracts with a number of provider organizations and systems that provide a more comprehensive approach to member care. Alliance Health also makes care management services available to all of its BH I/DD Tailored Plan members, either directly or through contracts with certified provider agencies.
Alliance Health will partner with Cityblock to provide eligible members access to Cityblock’s primary care and behavioral healthcare services across modalities, where members will have the option to see their care team virtually, in their homes, or at existing Cityblock clinics in Charlotte and Fayetteville.
Cityblock’s care model connects enrolled and eligible members to a multidisciplinary care team that includes primary care providers, behavioral health specialists, community health partners, nurse care managers, pharmacy navigators and more.
Alliance Health and Cityblock have engaged in a value-based arrangement – Alliance Health’s first shared risk arrangement. The companies say this creates strong alignment towards a common goal of delivering higher quality healthcare and outcomes for members. This care structure allows care teams the flexibility to intervene and invest in dynamic strategies to meet members’ complex clinical and non-clinical needs. Alliance Health and Cityblock’s value-based partnership will help increase access to unique, integrated care for the most vulnerable members, close gaps in health equity, and drive sustainable value, they added.
“Alliance believes that Cityblock's treatment approach of providing community-based integrated primary care, behavioral healthcare, and attention to social supports is an ideal model to address the complex needs of our members,” said Alliance Health Chief Operating Officer Sean Schreiber, in a statement. “We have been impressed with their desire and commitment to engage and serve our population.”
“Access to integrated care for people with behavioral health needs is critical to the NCDHHS priority of behavioral health and resilience. People have better outcomes when we treat the mind and body – the whole person,” said Kelly Crosbie, Director, Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services, NC Department of Health and Human Services, in a statement. “NCDHHS applauds Alliance and Cityblock’s leadership in tailoring this innovative model to address the whole-person needs of people with behavioral and substance use disorder needs.”
“We share North Carolina and Alliance Health’s longstanding commitment to providing innovative, high-quality care to members with complex behavioral health needs,” said Toyin Ajayi, M.D., CEO and cofounder of Cityblock, in a statement. “Together, and on the heels of North Carolina’s groundbreaking transition to Medicaid managed care, we will deploy care to treat individuals holistically and reduce health disparities, and we look forward to delivering clinical and financial outcomes for marginalized and underserved communities throughout the state.”
