UT Health Science Center at Tyler Joins Forces with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas

November 11, 2019

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler joins forces with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas to train future healthcare leaders and improve health in East Texas and beyond.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler today announced two new projects in collaboration with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) aimed at training future healthcare leaders and improving health in East Texas and beyond.

The first project entails exploring the development of a collaborative doctoral program in Health Administration that will focus on increasing the knowledge of healthcare professionals to better address issues related to population health. The second project is a program to examine the social and economic impact of undertreated mental health conditions in East Texas.

“The opportunity to collaborate with another healthcare leader to provide additional educational opportunities and lower the cost of healthcare is at the core of our mission,” noted Kirk A. Calhoun, MD, FACP, president of UT Health Science Center at Tyler. “This monumental collaboration with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas carries a tremendous benefit for this region and beyond. Combining our expertise, we will work together to address these emerging issues to ensure healthcare is more effective and more affordable for everyone.”

The collaborative doctoral program would bring together the payor, provider and academic sides of healthcare administration to create opportunities for future interaction and innovation. The sharing of ideas and perspectives will help put both UT Health Science Center at Tyler and BCBSTX at the forefront of population health in this region.

Additionally, BCBSTX is funding a research grant at UT Health Science Center to examine the short and long-term social and economic costs of people suffering from undertreated behavioral health conditions and develop interventions aimed at reducing these costs. Access to care for mental health and reducing undertreatment of the conditions has become a public health issue. The research grant is for three years, with the first year dedicated to studying a large population and gathering data points and the next two years focused on addressing identified gaps and uncovering solutions.

“Failure to address access and affordability of health care has real consequences. We need to challenge the status quo by bringing transformative research and ideas to the table,” said Dr. Dan McCoy, president, BCBSTX. “By collaborating with a diverse set of institutions and researchers, such as UT Health Science Center at Tyler, who are embedded in and understand the communities we’re serving, we can better identify and develop solutions that tackle high health care costs at its foundation.”

In addition to this project, BCBSTX is also working with other research institutions across the state to study a range of health care challenges, from behavioral health to improving vaccine adherence to expanding access to education for medical professionals. The projects will support the company’s objectives of addressing the root causes of an expensive health care system. These projects are part of BCBSTX’s endeavor to help improve quality and coordination of care delivery, balance inequities and eliminate waste in the system.