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Meet Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies in Ahwatukee

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies.

Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Founded in 2015, the Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies (CGI) is one of a handful of universities worldwide that grant the distinguished Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) degree, and is the only university that exclusively focuses on the growing field of integrated healthcare. CGI credits its origins to the work of Nicholas Cummings, Ph.D., Sc.D. (1924 –), an American psychologist, author, and former president of the American Psychology Association (1979).

As Chief of Mental Health for the Kaiser Permanente Health System (1959-1979), Dr. Cummings was a trailblazer in the healthcare industry who developed an entrepreneurial model of psychology-driven behavioral health, known as the Biodyne Model. Characterized by patient-centered, whole person healthcare created through collaboration amongst medical practitioners, the Biodyne Model is a time-tested, successful approach to integrated healthcare.

Dr. Cummings founded American Biodyne, the nation’s first and only psychology-driven managed behavioral health organization (MBHO). Using the Biodyne Model as a foundational service delivery and treatment model, American Biodyne grew exponentially across the nation, eventually covering 25 million enrollees.

In the early days of the technical revolution, Dr. Cummings was invited as the CEO of American Biodyne to attend a luncheon where he would meet innovators and entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley, including Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Dr. Cummings was inspired by the brilliance of these entrepreneurs, and was struck by a similarity he noticed among the group: a particularly high college dropout rate. The tech giants of Silicon Valley had either enrolled in college and quickly dropped out after learning they knew far more than any of the faculty, or never enrolled at all; choosing instead to spend all of their time inventing the new technologies that would absolutely revolutionize our lives. Dr. Cummings realized that what healthcare needed was a similar revolution, and he saw an opportunity to teach behavioral health providers to disrupt the ineffective, fragmented healthcare system from within. There was only one problem: no university existed that was out-of-the-box enough to create both the curriculum and the environment that would stimulate the kind of innovation that healthcare needed. The choice was clear.

In 2014, Dr. Cummings along with his daughter, Janet L. Cummings, Psy.D, created the Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies to fill the educational gaps for innovative and entrepreneurial healthcare professionals wishing to disrupt healthcare from within or for those looking to launch new ventures. Drs. Cummings designed the DBH degree program at CGI to address three critical needs behavioral health providers would need to be successful in this aim: medical literacy, efficient and effective delivery of behavioral health interventions in medical settings, and entrepreneurship and innovation in the healthcare marketplace.

The Institute received its approval from the Arizona Board for Private Postsecondary Education in February 2015 and enrolled its first student in June 2015. Its inaugural Commencement was held in December 2015, and Cummings DBH students and graduates are already gaining recognition as leaders, entrepreneurs, and valued colleagues.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies (CGI) has certainly had our fair share of challenges as a start-up and pioneering university, focused on changing the way the world experiences healthcare. Many of the early challenges we experienced were related to learning the business of delivering post-secondary education, including building the technology infrastructure needed for a 100% online institution, gaining state licensure as a degree-granting institution, preparing for institutional accreditation, and navigating state authorization requirements for enrollment. Building institutional policies and procedures while continuously maintaining focus on the people – students, faculty, and staff – that are most important is an ongoing challenge that our team is deeply invested in.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies story. Tell us more about the business.
Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies (CGI) is a private nonprofit institution offering graduate and professional behavioral health education through a virtual online campus. CGI takes great pride in awarding the unique and innovative Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) degree. Cummings Graduate Institute of Behavioral Health Studies mission is to disrupt healthcare by preparing entrepreneurial integrated care professionals through innovative & affordable distance education programs, grounded in the Biodyne Model, and focused on delivering patient-centered care, population health improvements, and medical cost savings. Our Vision is to improve the way the world experiences healthcare.

We are known for our entrepreneurial approach to addressing healthcare problems. Most healthcare providers have been taught only clinical skills, so that they are prepared to fit into existing healthcare delivery systems upon graduation. CGI’s founder, Dr. Nicholas Cummings, believed that clinicians must play a larger role in leading change in the direction of designing care that is best for our patients. The Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) degree program at CGI focuses on teaching advanced clinical skills that help providers get to the root cause of the patient’s problem efficiently, and designing treatment plans that are effective, evidence-based, and applicable to both patients and their caregivers who are dealing with one or more chronic medical and/or mental health diagnoses. We learn to do this so well, that we save patients time by healing them faster, we save providers time by treating the behavioral health aspects of disease management that were previously unaddressed, and we save the healthcare system money by keeping patients out of the emergency room and improving their overall functioning and health outcomes.

Financing a doctoral degree is question on most students’ minds. Another factor which sets us apart from other universities offering online education in behavioral health, is our tuition model. Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies works hard to make tuition affordable and accessible for our students, as reflected by our competitive tuition rates and flexible payment options. Our tuition is the most economical Doctor of Behavioral program on the market to date, priced at $350 per credit hour. With no out-of-state of international tuition differences, our tuition model ensures that students can feel confident about the cost of their education without worry of hidden fees or surprise expenses. Competitive tuition with nothing to hide is our standard, not an exception.

We are proud to be the only university, worldwide, that focuses exclusively on integrated healthcare. Our faculty and graduates are all practicing clinicians and healthcare leaders who make a difference for patients and other providers on a daily basis as we continue to research best practices, innovate new ways of delivering healthcare, and evaluate the outcomes of these innovations to ensure that they are improving the quality of the healthcare experience for all people. We know that what we do is important, and we enjoy partnering with others who share our passion. We are unique in that we believe that EVERYONE – patients, caregivers, providers from all sectors, legislators and advocates, healthcare executives – EVERYONE has a seat at the table when it comes to making real change, and that there has never been a better time for us to come together as partners to make the changes happen.

Pricing:

  • 1 Credit Hour – $350 standard tuition, $315 military tuition
  • Single Course at 3 credit hours – $1050 standard tuition, $945 military tuition
  • DBH Program (60 credit hours) – $21,000 + $150 (1 time program fee) = $21,150 standard tuition, $19,050 military tuition

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