Healthy Alliance Independent Practice Association, Innovative Health Alliance of New York, and Fidelis Care join forces to improve health by addressing social determinants of health.
Starting October 1st, the new partnership will bring together medical providers and community based organizations (CBOs) to address safe housing, adequate nutrition, employment, and other social determinants of health.
Healthy Alliance Independent Practice Association (IPA), Innovative Health Alliance of New York, LLC (IHANY), and Fidelis Care are partnering to provide critical funding and careful coordination of services to Medicaid members insured by Fidelis Care. The new partnership will bring together medical providers and community-based organizations (CBOs) to address safe housing, adequate nutrition, employment, and other social determinantsof health that impact an individual’s health, quality of life, and wellbeing in upstate New York. This initiative will start on October 1st.
Population Health Initiative Details
IHANY is the first and only network of providers certified by New York State and Medicare as an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) in the Capital Region. Healthy Alliance IPA is the first IPA in the nation entirely devoted to addressing social determinants of health. The IPA serves as a central point of contact to connect medical providers, CBOs, ACOs such as IHANY, and managed care organizations such as Fidelis Care, together. By serving as a central point of contact between these diverse organizations, the IPA can ensure each of these entities work together to maximize a person’s health.
As part of the collaboration, Healthy Alliance IPA and IHANY will provide services to Fidelis Care members, focusing on members with at least one chronic health condition who have not had a primary care visit with their provider in more than six months. This initiative aims at improving health by successfully linking the underserved to primary care, reducing avoidable hospital use and increasing preventive care visits to keep people healthy.
IHANY will connect Fidelis members to the Healthy Alliance network of CBOs, who will link Fidelis members to social, behavioral and medical care providers through Healthy Together, a closed-loop referral platform powered by Unite Us. CBOs that participate in this program remain front and center in supporting the needs of vulnerable individuals and will be staffed by community health workers who often are from the neighborhoods they serve.
What This Means for Community Members
This initiative joins a growing national movement to drive the creation of new models of care with a focus on helping community members and their care teams improve health, instead of just responding when there is a medical problem. “Aligning with CBOs, which often are the first defense in providing for the underlying needs that lead to poor health, can best be made through partnerships like this,” said IHANY Board President Paul Barbarotto, D.O., who practices at Capital Region Family Health Care, a practice of St. Peter’s Health Partners Medical Associates. “A person’s health can now be recognized as much more than the medical care individuals seek from doctors and hospitals.”
“Through the Healthy Alliance IPA, we are working to proactively address social determinants of health to improve a person’s overall health, while also reducing cost of care. But this critical work isn’t done in isolation,” said Jacob Reider, M.D., CEO of Alliance for Better Health. “The IPA’s success is a byproduct of the partnerships we have built in the Capital Region. We are proud to work with medical providers, managed care organizations like Fidelis Care, and ACOs like IHANY. Together, we can improve our community members’ health by addressing social needs before they evolve into medical problems.”
