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Monthly News & Updates | September 2026 | | | |
Stay Connected with CTC-RI on LinkedIn
Follow CTC-RI on LinkedIn for the latest training opportunities, funding announcements, quality improvement initiatives, primary care resources, and news from across Rhode Island's healthcare community.
Join the conversation and stay connected with the work shaping the future of primary care!
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Poll: Help Shape the Future of Primary Care
We want to hear from you! What should Rhode Island prioritize to improve primary care over the next three years?
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🔦 Spotlight: Improving Health Care Transitions for Young Adults | | |
CTC-RI launched its fourth cohort of the Pediatric & Adult Practice Health Transition of Care/EPSDT Billing Code Pilot, a quality improvement initiative focused on helping young adults move successfully from pediatric to adult health care.
This cohort includes four adult practices and five pediatric practices working together to test newly approved Medicaid billing codes that recognize and support health care transition activities.
The initiative builds on five years of CTC-RI’s work to improve pediatric-to-adult care transitions and brings together partners including RIDOH Title V, Got Transition®, Rhode Island Medicaid, health plans, and primary care providers. CTC-RI will share findings, tools, and learning resources from the project in 2027 to help other practices strengthen their own transition processes.
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Call for Applications: Family-Centered Care Coordinator Training
Applications are open for CTC-RI’s new nine-month learning collaborative supporting Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs and their families. Participants will build skills in family-centered care, communication, cultural responsiveness, and system navigation while learning alongside peers and local experts.
$250 stipend available. CME, CEU, and CHWARI credits offered.
📅 Begins November 5, 2026. Contact mthomas@ctc-ri.org to learn more.
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🗓️ Upcoming CTC-RI Meetings & Learning Opportunities
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Improving Child Health in RI: Family Visiting – Expanding the Pediatric Care Team
Join CTC-RI for our October PCMH Kids Quarterly Stakeholder Meeting exploring how family visiting can strengthen the pediatric care team. The panel will feature perspectives from pediatric care, RIDOH Family Visiting, family experience, and Family Service of Rhode Island.
📅 October 1 | 7:30–8:30 AM
For more information, contact Sue Dettling at sdettling@ctc-ri.org.
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📢 Updates, Successes, & Developments
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CTC-RI Launches Next Age-Friendly Care Cohort
CTC-RI is launching its 2026–2027 Delivering Age-Friendly Care cohort, bringing together Rhode Island primary care practices to implement the 4Ms Framework: What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility, and strengthen support for care partners of people living with dementia.
Over six months, participating practices will use quality improvement strategies, peer learning, and practice facilitation to build age-friendly care into everyday workflows and pursue IHI Age-Friendly Health Systems recognition.
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Diabetes, Kidney Health, and Tobacco QI Collaborative
CTC-RI is launching a new 21-month quality improvement collaborative focused on diabetes management, chronic kidney disease screening, and tobacco screening and cessation. The initiative builds on the success of CTC-RI’s previous pharmacy-led QI work, which produced significant improvements in kidney health evaluations, eye exams, and glycemic control.
Four Rhode Island primary care practices will participate in the new cohort, working with practice facilitator Kelley Doherty Sanzen, PharmD, PAHM, CDOE, through dedicated facilitation, peer learning, and pharmacist-supported workflows. The collaborative begins this fall in partnership with the URI College of Pharmacy and with funding from UnitedHealthcare and RIDOH.
| | | 🔦Annual Conference Session Spotlight: From Research to Implementation to Policy — Ending the HIV Epidemic Through PrEP Access | | |
How does a research finding become a law? At this year's Annual Conference, Rhode Island Public Health Institute and Open Door Health will walk through exactly that path, tracing how gaps in PrEP uptake and access barriers like cost, prior authorization, and care fragmentation led directly to policy change at the State House.
This session brings together the full arc of that work: Dr. Amy Nunn and Dr. Philip Chan will share the clinical and implementation data that identified where patients were falling through the cracks, particularly around pharmacy-based access for those outside routine primary care. Then State Senator Melissa Murray and State Representative Brandon Potter will join to give the legislative view: what it took to move a bill from proposal to enactment, and the decision points that shaped the final law.
For practices navigating prior authorization hurdles or looking to expand access to HIV prevention, this session offers a real-world model for how clinical evidence and advocacy can work together to remove structural barriers.
To learn more about this and other sessions, visit our website.
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Putting What Matters First: Advancing Age-Friendly Care in Rhode Island
A new University of Rhode Island feature highlights the impact of Rhode Island’s age-friendly care initiative, a collaboration between URI’s Rhode Island Geriatric Education Center, RIDOH, CTC-RI, and UnitedHealthcare.
The initiative helped 17 primary care practices implement the Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms Framework and identify more than 300 caregivers who could benefit from additional support and resources.
Read how practices are putting "What Matters" at the center of care for older adults.
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New Rhode Island Survey Highlights Cost, Access and Trust in Health Care
The latest Rhode Island Survey Initiative from URI offers a timely look at how Rhode Islanders experience the state’s health care system.
- 72% of respondents said they are worried about health care costs
- 29% reported delaying recommended care because of cost
- 44% said they trust their own doctor or health care provider a great deal for reliable health information
- 49% say they regularly use AI for health information
The findings underscore the importance of looking beyond individual services to how the primary care system functions, from affordability and access to workforce capacity and trusted relationships.
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New OHIC Report Examines Primary Care Reimbursement
The Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (OHIC) has released a new report examining primary care reimbursement rates in Rhode Island.
The report includes data on Medicaid primary care reimbursement, comparisons with rates in other New England states and nationally, and recommendations for future investment in primary care.
The report follows Rhode Island’s October 2025 increase in Medicaid primary care reimbursement rates to Medicare levels and provides additional analysis of reimbursement levels and the cost of delivering primary care.
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Perinatal OCD Training
Please join the Rhode Island Maternal Psychiatry Resource Network (RI MomsPRN) for a free virtual lunch-and-learn event focused on recognizing and treating perinatal obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
This training, held on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM (Download Flyer), will be led by Maggie Allen, Ph.D., Clinical Director of Women’s Behavioral Health at Women & Infants Hospital and Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University.
Dr. Allen is a licensed clinical psychologist with expertise in identifying and treating perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, including the use of Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) to treat perinatal OCD.
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Rhode Island Department of Health Offers Diabetes Education Sessions This November
The RI World Diabetes Day Committee will hold a series of virtual learning events throughout November for World Diabetes Day.
A Healthcare Professionals Series will offer educational sessions covering the latest topics in diabetes prevention and management. CME/CE credits are available for participants. A separate Community Learning Series will empower individuals with knowledge to prevent and manage diabetes.
Visit the Rhode Island World Diabetes Day website for more information and to register.
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