SMITHFIELD – Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island announced that Michelle Lupoli, vice president of medical management, received the Dr. Martin L. Block Award for Innovation and Excellence from the Resource Initiative & Society for Education Association, which supports and educates health care professionals involved in the health care reform movement. Lupoli received the recognition at RISE’s annual conference in Nashville, Tenn., in March.
In her capacity at NHPRI, Lupoli has redesigned the insurer’s strategy for working with its members, moving from a traditional, clinical managed-care telephone-based approach to a face-to-face, interdisciplinary team approach, incorporating community outreach workers and other specialists, reported NHPRI. Additionally, Lupoli created the Integrated Behavioral Health program, which assists NHPRI’s care management teams that support the insurer’s most medically fragile members.
The RISE Association is the first association dedicated to empowering health care professionals to meet the evolving world of accountable care and health care reform. Each year, RISE honors an individual “who has made a significant impact in the lives of America’s seniors through clinical leadership, policy vision or through superior examples of RISE’s mission to promote continuous improvement in the health care system,” NHPRI reported. The award is named after Martin Block, an Arizona-based physician who devoted his life to improving the lives of America’s senior citizens through leadership, vision and continuous innovation in health care.
“We are incredibly proud of the tremendous work Michelle has done on the behalf of [NHPRI’s] members,” Peter Marino, NHPRI president and CEO, said in a statement. The RISE committee was particularly impressed with her strong contributions in developing a continuum of care for NPHRI members who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, said Marino, who called this national recognition “well deserved.”
RISE also commended Lupoli for the partnership she developed with the R.I. Department of Elderly Affairs to support continuity of care programs and her efforts to establish a Nurse Practitioner Rounding Program that focuses on increasing the quality of care for NHPRI members residing in nursing homes.
Nancy Kirsch is a PBN contributing writer.
