Altitude is honored to be recognized as one of the 500 most innovative medical practices in the country.

The National CMS Innovation Center, a cooperative of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has recently announced the 498 clinics selected to participate in the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative (CPCI).  The 498 practices selected represent an elite group of less than 1/1oth of 1% of all practices nationwide.

This 4 year project will help practices with a proven track record of outstanding medical outcomes, innovative delivery of care, and cost efficiency to continue to build their infrastructure and transform their practices as models of clinical excellence to meet and exceed the needs of their patients in a demanding healthcare system.

From CMS:

The Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative is a multi-payer initiative fostering collaboration between public and private health care payers to strengthen primary care. Medicare will work with commercial and State health insurance plans and offer bonus payments to primary care doctors who better coordinate care for their patients. Primary care practices that choose to participate in this initiative will be given resources to better coordinate primary care for their Medicare patients.

Primary care is critical to promoting health, improving care, and reducing overall system costs, but it has been historically under-funded and under-valued in the United States. Without a significant enough investment across multiple payers, independent health plans– covering only their own members and offering support only for their segment of the total practice population– cannot provide enough resources to transform entire primary care practices and make expanded services available to all patients served by those practices.

The CPC initiative offers a way to break through this historical impasse by inviting payers to join with Medicare in investing in primary care in 7 selected localities across the country. Eligible practices in each market were invited to apply to participate and start delivering enhanced health care services in the fall of 2012.

Practices were selected through a competitive application process based on their use of health information technology, ability to demonstrate recognition of advanced primary care delivery by accreditation bodies, service to patients covered by participating payers, participation in practice transformation and improvement activities, and diversity of geography, practice size and ownership structure.

The resources will help doctors work with patients to ensure the following:

• Manage Care for Patients with High Health Care Needs
• Ensure Access to Care
• Deliver Preventive Care
• Engage Patients and Caregivers
• Coordinate Care Across the Medical Neighborhood