CMMI to honor MultiCultural IPA with healthcare innovation award

MultiCultural IPA (www.multiculturalipa.com) announced today that it is one of four project sites selected to receive a healthcare innovation award by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) and will partner with Rutgers State University of New Jersey to create a "sustainable high-utilization team model" for the nation's "super users" of hospital care in an effort to decrease hospital inpatient and emergency department use.

"MultiCultural IPA is a safety-net provider organization for many low-income families throughout San Diego County. We are proud to have been selected by CMMI to partner with SynerMed, a leading medical services organization, and the San Diego Organizing Project to expand holistic patient care to disadvantaged populations, where access to care is becoming more difficult," said MultiCultural IPA President Rodney Hood, MD.

The purpose of the Health Care Innovation Award is to advance a national model of care known as "hot spotting," a concept first championed by Dr. Jeffrey Brenner of the Camden Healthcare Provider Coalition, designed to identify and focus resources on high utilizers of acute medical services through a team approach, ultimately leading to improved quality of care and reduced cost.

"Low-income, medically complex patients have the highest disease burdens and the greatest need for health care services integration. At MultiCultural IPA our comprehensive team approach to care will help us better manage patients with chronic conditions and reduce preventable inpatient and emergency department visits," said Hood. "This project provides an innovative pathway to build patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) that will serve as an extension of the many small medical clinics participating with MultiCultural IPA."

The Rutgers CMMI grant will provide $14.3 million over the next three years to implement programs in California, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Missouri. The project grew out of the Bring Health Reform Home initiative of the PICO National Network, a grassroots, faith-based organization and is projected to generate a three-year savings of $ 67.7 million. PICO's local affiliate, the San Diego Organizing Project, is partnering with MultiCultural IPA to achieve its goals in San Diego.