Grant to help study Latino health care
By Jessica Selby

Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, Butler Hospital and Beacon Health Strategies win $261,000 grant from Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to evaluate ethnic, racial disparities in care. >>read more

Health insurers team up to launch Medicare Plan
By Marion Davis

In the first collaboration between the state's two nonprofit health insurers, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island have teamed up to offer a new Medicare managed-care plan to low-income subscribers.
>> read more

MARK REYNOLDS was profiled recently in the premier edition of the Hospital Association of Rhode Island's "Leader in Health Care" series.  >> read more

CEO picked for health insurer for low-income
By Felice Freyer

MARK REYNOLDS, who ran Medicaid programs in Massachusetts and Tennessee, named Neighborhood's new chief executive officer.  >> read more

Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island receives $250,000 from U.S. Senator Jack Reed for medical interpreter services technology
Press Release

U.S. Senator Jack Reed today announced that he has secured $250,000 for Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island to purchase medical interpreter services technology to help improve healthcare access for non-English speaking patients.Neighborhood Health Plan anticipates that the technology—including small, portable translating devices, called “phraselators”—will be used in rescue vehicles and at key access points in its Su Salud partners’ healthcare settings. >> read more

Neighborhood Honored by US EPA for Asthma Management Work
Press Release

CONGRESSMAN KENNEDY JOINS U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY IN LAUDING NEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH PLAN OF RHODE ISLAND FOR ITS ASTHMA MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

In conjunction with World Asthma Day 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced its first-ever winners of the “National Environmental Leadership Award in Asthma Management.”  The winners are: Optima Health (Virginia Beach, VA) and Children’s Mercy Hospitals and Clinics (Kansas City, MO).  Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island and the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center were celebrated as Honorable Mention designees.  >> read more

Hospitals Expand to Meet Demand
By Felice Freyer

MICHELLE LUPOLI'S mission is to find out why her people are choosing such care -- and to see whether there's a better alternative for them. Her people are members of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, a Providence-based HMO that serves the poor, young families enrolled in the state's RIte Care health plan.  >> read more

Insurer Praised for Personal Touch
By Marion Davis

One of her (Bernie Hicks) greatest assets, she says, is Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, which covers the children under the state RIte Care program.“They stand by the kids, and they’re willing to go above and beyond to help them in whatever way they can,” she says. “They’re a very people-oriented company.”
>> read more

Onward & Upward
By Michael T. McCue

…In 1996, Neighborhood was a 27,000-member health plan with $30 million in revenue, about 40 people on staff, and a net worth of about $200,000. "I signed all the provider checks myself every week, knew the daily inpatient census, and spent a good deal of my days convincing major hospitals and regulators that we could make the trains run on time," Chris Koller says. Eight and half years later—with 180 employees, $175 million in annual revenues and a net worth of $13 million—the plan is hardly a gorilla, but "that is the point—we collaborate with providers and members in way that is often innovative," Koller says. "Local providers who shunned us as the 'poor folks plan' now hold us up as the model. The same is true for well-run Medicaid managed care plans around the country. Providers respect our focus on collaborating with them to improve access."
>> read more

Neighborhood Celebrates its 10th Anniversary

Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island recently celebrated its 10th anniversary by thanking all those responsible for starting and sustaining the state's RIte Care health insurance program. Neighborhood is the largest RIte Care partner for the state serving more than 75,000 members. Many Neighborhood members, and state and local dignitaries were in attendance.

Wood River Health Chief Has Temporary State Job
By Chris Keegan - The Sun Staff

The top administrator of a local community health center has been named interim chief executive officer for one of Rhode Island's leading health maintenance organizations. Wood River Health Services Executive Director Ernest A. Balasco will take over as temporary head of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island next month. The organization coordinates health services for 75,000 Rhode Islanders with Medicaid, a federally funded medical assistance program for individuals with limited income.
>> read more

Health chief faces key questions
By Marion Davis
How much money should Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island keep in reserves to ensure that even in a crisis, it can still pay its subscribers’ health care bills? How much can young, healthy people be made to subsidize older and sicker people’s insurance costs before they start dropping out of the system entirely? And how do you structure insurance plans to encourage Rhode Islanders to stay healthy, but discourage them from using costly services?

Christopher F. Koller had been thinking about these questions long before Gov. Donald L. Carcieri nominated him as the state’s first health insurance commissioner. As CEO of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island since 1996, he’s seen medical costs soar, faced tough budgeting decisions, and had to set priorities for how Neighborhood Health’s 73,000 subscribers – all beneficiaries of the state RIte Care program – will get their care.
>> read more

NCQA Names Nation's Top 10 Medicare, Medicaid Health Plans
Press Release

Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, a Medicaid-only plan that serves 73,000+ beneficiaries throughout Rhode Island, also rated among the top 10. “We were founded by Rhode Island's community health centers,” said Christopher F. Koller, CEO of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island. “That partnership gives us an up close perspective on the lives and needs of our members. This member and provider understanding guides our staff, programs and materials and, in turn, helps our members successfully overcome barriers to care.”
>> read more