Friday, June 6, 2025
6/6/2025
Brockton Office-Based Addiction Treatment (BOBAT) - The Brockton Office-based Addiction Treatment (BOBAT) Program will expand Medication for Addiction Treatment (MAT) in one of the most underserved and economically disadvantaged regions in Massachusetts, the Brockton geographic catchment area (GCA). Comprising Brockton and 12 surrounding towns, this region has an estimated prevalence of 11,938 individuals with OUD. Although 6.5% of opioid-related deaths in the state occur the GCA, only 2.7% of the waivered providers in the state (38 of 1,410) practice in the region, leaving this population with inadequate access to buprenorphine, as well as naltrexone. The BOBAT Program is an initiative of the Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital (BH) and its affiliate, Signature Medical Group (SMG). SMG offers one of the few buprenorphine programs in the GCA. Located at SMG’s primary care practice on Liberty Street, in close proximity to the hospital, the program has 100 treatment slots. It operates at full capacity, turning away as many as four to five individuals a week. With SAMHSA funding, we will double our capacity to provide MAT with buprenorphine in three primary care sites, including our Outpatient Department (OPD) on the BH campus, our Liberty Street group practice, and our Raynham group practice 15 miles to the south of Brockton. To this end, we will implement the Nurse Care Manager (NCM) Model of Office-based Addiction Treatment (OBAT), or the “Massachusetts Model.” Developed by our project partner, Boston Medical Center, the model uses trained nurse care managers to oversee MAT for patients with an opioid use disorder overseeing the induction through long-term maintenance in collaboration with the patient’s waivered primary care provider. It has been shown to expand capacity and reduce the burden on waivered providers. The model has a high rate of retention (65% at one year) and has been shown to reduce utilization of emergency services by 46% and inpatient admissions by 61%. It generates net revenue of up to $250 PMPM. As part of this grant-funded program, we will establish an interdisciplinary team (1.0 FTE Nurse Care Managers, 1.0 Licensed Mental Health Clinician, 1.0 Medical Assistant and 1.0 Peer Recovery Coach). Induction and stabilization will take place in OPD, as well as a multi-disciplinary assessment and development of a care plan. MAT maintenance will take place in the patient’s medical home, with support from the BOBAT Team. The use of this adapted NCM model will increase our MAT capacity while ensuring the coordination of mental health, MAT and primary care services. Peer recovery coaching will be instrumental in helping retain patients and in re-engaging those who relapse. The program will increase our OBAT caseload by 100 patients by the end of Year 1, bringing the total caseload to 200. The process evaluation assess project implementation in relation to timelines and enrollment targets. The outcome evaluation will examine a pre/post patient scores on selected GPRA measures and the BOBAT’s return on investment.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).