Newsroom

NewYork-Presbyterian, in collaboration with Columbia University Medical Center, has received a grant of $4.5 million over five years from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to participate in the newly launched Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Model, an innovative program designed to test various approaches to integrating medical care and community services. The goal of the AHC Model is to improve health outcomes and reduce the total cost of care among Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

“The health of our patients is our primary concern, whether they are inside our hospital or in our communities,” said Dr. Steven J. Corwin, president and CEO of NewYork-Presbyterian. “This grant from CMS will enable us to provide further care for our patients and find innovative ways to deliver resources to underserved populations.”

As part of the AHC, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia will serve as a “bridge organization” that will identify Medicare and Medicaid patients at high risk for health-related social needs, connect those patients to community-based organizations (CBOs) and align CBO partners to address health-related social needs in the Washington Heights-Inwood community.

"This announcement speaks to the tremendous work of NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center and its contributions to residents and patients throughout the community," said U.S. Congressman Adriano Espaillat. "I commend the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) for selecting NewYork-Presbyterian during Track 3 of the AHC program to serve as a ‘bridge organization’ in helping to identify Medicare/Medicaid patients at high risk for health-related social needs in the Washington Heights and Inwood community."

“The mission of this new initiative is three-fold: improve the health outcomes of the community we serve, link patients in need with the appropriate community-based organizations and resources, and reduce the overall per capita cost of care,” said David Alge, senior vice president, Community and Population Health at NewYork-Presbyterian.

Over the five-year period, CMMI will implement and test the three-track AHC model to support local communities in addressing health-related social needs, including housing instability, food insecurity, utility needs, interpersonal violence, and transportation.

CMMI has selected 12 Assistance Track and 20 Alignment Track bridge organizations, representing rural and urban communities across 193 counties in 23 states, to participate in the model. The 32 bridge organizations in the AHC model are diverse —varying in type (e.g., county governments, hospitals, universities and health departments), size, location and beneficiary demographics.

NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia has been selected as a Track 3: Alignment organization. This track is designed to increase awareness and provide community service navigation assistance and encourage partner alignment at the community level to ensure that community services are available and responsive to the needs of beneficiaries.

The grant will be implemented by NewYork-Presbyterian’s Ambulatory Care Network (ACN), a division of Community & Population Health. Employing a community-centered model that includes longstanding partnerships with Columbia University Medical Center and Weill Cornell Medicine, the ACN mobilizes NewYork-Presbyterian's resources to provide clinical services, education and preventative care to the members of the Hospital's communities in northern Manhattan and the Upper East Side.

For more information, please see the CMS announcement.

NewYork-Presbyterian

NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the nation’s most comprehensive healthcare delivery networks, focused on providing innovative and compassionate care to patients in the New York metropolitan area and throughout the globe. In collaboration with two renowned medical school partners, Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, NewYork-Presbyterian is consistently recognized as a leader in medical education, groundbreaking research and clinical innovation.

NewYork-Presbyterian has four major divisions: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is ranked #1 in the New York metropolitan area by U.S. News and World Report and repeatedly named to the magazine’s Honor Roll of best hospitals in the nation; NewYork-Presbyterian Regional Hospital Network is comprised of leading hospitals in and around New York and delivers high-quality care to patients throughout the region; NewYork-Presbyterian Physician Services connects medical experts with patients in their communities; and NewYork-Presbyterian Community and Population Health features the hospital’s ambulatory care network sites and operations, community care initiatives and healthcare quality programs, including NewYork Quality Care, established by NewYork-Presbyterian, Weill Cornell and Columbia.

NewYork-Presbyterian is one of the largest healthcare providers in the U.S. Each year, nearly 40,000 NewYork-Presbyterian professionals deliver exceptional care for more than 4 million patient visits. For more information, visit www.nyp.org and find us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Columbia University Medical Center provides international leadership in basic, preclinical, and clinical research; medical and health sciences education; and patient care. The medical center trains future leaders and includes the dedicated work of many physicians, scientists, public health professionals, dentists, and nurses at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the Mailman School of Public Health, the College of Dental Medicine, the School of Nursing, the biomedical departments of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and allied research centers and institutions. Columbia University Medical Center is home to the largest medical research enterprise in New York City and State and one of the largest faculty medical practices in the Northeast. The campus that Columbia University Medical Center shares with its hospital partner, NewYork-Presbyterian, is now called the Columbia University Irving Medical Center.  For more information, visit cumc.columbia.edu or columbiadoctors.org.