Community Care of North Carolina won the inaugural Hearst Health prize on March 8 and $100,000 for excellence in managing or improving health.
Hearst Health and the Jefferson College of Population Health of Thomas Jefferson University co-sponsored the award. The winner was announced at the 16th annual Population Health Colloquium in Philadelphia.
Community Care of North Carolina received recognition for its transitional care model that serves 2,600 of the state’s Medicaid recipients per month and has real-time data connections with 78 percent of Medicaid hospitalizations in the state. The program offers adults with chronic medical conditions medication management, education for condition self-management and outpatient communication with the medical home.
Since 2008, hospitalization rates have declined 10 percent and readmissions have declined 16 percent. In addition, the program led to a 9 percent reduction in Medicaid costs.
A panel of 9 judges evaluated more than 125 submissions and announced three finalists on Feb. 9: Centering Healthcare Institute in Boston, Community Care of North Carolina in Raleigh and Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health in Jersey City.
Centering Healthcare Institute was honored for its CenteringPregnancy care delivery model that has served more than 125,000 pregnant women in 400 U.S. practice.
Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health was recognized for its Health Inc. program that serves approximately 2,500 adults and children with complex chronic diseases and provides incentives for education, care management and healthy behaviors.
“We are delighted that Community Care of North Carolina has been awarded the first-ever Hearst Health Prize for its transitional care management program that improves clinical outcomes for Medicaid beneficiaries and lowers costs in a healthcare system that serves 1.4 million people,” Gregory Dorn, MD, MPH, president of Hearst Health, said in a news release. “Community Care of North Carolina’s program is highly scalable and replicable and it is our hope that the Hearst Health Prize provides a new national forum to share these practices with other programs to improve the health of vulnerable populations.”
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.