Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians Corporation Announces Joint Venture with Akido Labs

This Partnership Builds on RIPCPC’s 30-Year Record of Excellence and is Marked by the Creation of Bicoastal Health Care Innovation Hubs Designed to Provide Best-in-Class Care

Through this Partnership Akido Expands its Medical Network to the East Coast, Growing its Patient Base to Nearly Half a Million

PROVIDENCE, R.I., Dec. 21, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rhode Island’s largest and most recognized physician-led healthcare organization, Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians Corporation (“RIPCPC”), today announced its partnership with healthcare technology and care delivery company, Akido Labs (“Akido”), in a joint venture that expands RIPCPC’s 30-year statewide record of excellence in the delivery of health care and service to the people of Rhode Island and its commitment to the continuous improvement in the quality, safety and experience of care for patients and caregivers alike. Through this partnership, Akido will grow its medical network to the east coast, nearly doubling its patient base to just under half a million and creating bicoastal innovation hubs designed to build and share best practices with a focus on deepening the doctor-patient relationship.

“RIPCPC has built its reputation on providing high-quality, accessible care while seeking opportunities to improve the experience for our patients and providers. This commitment has been our north star as we’ve thoughtfully grown from taking care of 45,000 Rhode Islanders to over 200,000,” said Noah Benedict, CEO of RIPCPC. “As our communities evolve, we believe an emphasis on innovation will enhance our patients’ care experience, allowing us to keep our healthy members healthy and address the complex needs of our most vulnerable patients. As we look to the future, we recognize the need for a partner who also prioritizes innovation. Akido’s impressive team, company ethos, and leadership’s collaborative spirit were clear indicators that they were the right long-term partner.”

Over the past three decades, RIPCPC has built one of the most recognized physician-led healthcare organizations in New England with a commitment to caring for the entirety of a patient’s needs. In addition to its leading primary care programs, RIPCPC has developed wraparound services, including nurse care management, pharmacy, mental health and performance improvement functions, as well as a team-based care model that prioritizes the patient experience. As a leader in transforming practices to Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMH), RIPCPC has more NCQA (National Committee for Quality Assurance) recognized PCMH practices than any other group in Rhode Island. The organization’s ability to see the big picture while also tailoring programs to the needs of its independent practices has secured its involvement in numerous statewide committees focused on improving care delivery, quality metric alignment, and advanced payment models. As the organization plans for the next 30 years, it is leaning into innovation to further its commitment to provide high quality, accessible care that addresses the complex needs of the people of Rhode Island, including those from marginalized communities and underserved populations.

Akido is known for its market-leading AI technology, award-winning safety net and population health management programs and its commitment to eliminating friction from the care experience for its patients and providers. Its “whole person” care philosophy is designed around social determinants of health and built to create high quality, accessible care for all. Akido’s leadership has experience in medical group, health plan and health system management with a proven track record for building durable, performance-based networks with a focus on value-based care. The creation of bicoastal health care innovation hubs provides a unique operating environment that celebrates collaboration, technology integration and knowledge-sharing in the development of best-in-class care programs designed around the doctor-patient relationship.

“Akido is transforming healthcare by leveraging data and artificial intelligence to empower our providers and provide the best possible care for our patients. This goes well beyond the traditional healthcare model of just treating symptoms; it’s about addressing the root causes before they become chronic so that we can keep our patients living longer, healthier lives,” said Prashant Samant, co-founder and CEO of Akido. “We are honored to be partnering with RIPCPC, an organization that also believes in the power of health care to build thriving communities. Our shared commitment to creating an environment where providers can focus on bringing life-saving care to patients will revolutionize the healthcare experience in Rhode Island and set a new standard for the rest of the country.”

As part of this joint venture, a newly created RIPCPC Board will include two physician representatives as well as three Akido representatives. Dr. Jeffrey Wilson, MD, will serve as Chairman of the RIPCPC Board, and along with Dr. Herbert Brennan, the two will ensure the board continues to strategically serve RIPCPC’s more than 150 providers. Dr. Wilson has been a member of RIPCPC since 2003 and has chaired numerous quality committees during that time. He has served on the physician-run Board of Directors since 2013 and has held the position of President for the past three years. Dr. Wilson is a family physician with 23 years of experience caring for patients and families of all ages. He trained at Brown University.

“As a practicing family physician in Rhode Island and RIPCPC member for over 20 years, I am thrilled that our organization has partnered with Akido. Primary care is universally recognized as the lynchpin for coordinated health services and our ability to expand on RIPCPC’s 30 years of success by utilizing Akido’s technology and expertise in population-based care models will allow us to grow together and reach more Rhode Islanders in new and impactful ways,” said Dr. Jeffrey Wilson. “The respect and support that Akido has for primary care physicians is one of the most exciting pieces of our partnership and I feel will assist our providers in reaching new levels of personal and professional job satisfaction, which in turn leads to healthier and happier patients and an improved patient experience.”

A lifelong resident of Rhode Island, Dr. Herbert “Hub” Brennan, DO, established his East Greenwich practice in 1995, with a focus on comprehensive patient care, and is one of RIPCPC’s longest standing members. Dr. Brennan attended Providence College, trained at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine of Midwestern University and completed his medical residency at Brown University.

The RIPCPC Board’s Akido representatives will include Eric Chin, CFO, Sanjit Mahanti, co-founder and Head of Business Development, and Leslie Margolin, Head of Akido Healthcare Networks. Chin has 20 years’ financial experience and a deep knowledge of the healthcare landscape. Previously, he served as CFO at Apollo Medical Holdings (ApolloMed), a publicly traded physician-centric technology-powered healthcare company. Mahanti and Margolin have a combined 50+ years of experience in health plan and health system management, as well as a deep knowledge of the change management process. Prior to co-founding Akido, Mahanti served as the Chief Business Development Officer for Keck Medicine of USC. Margolin has worked with the RIPCPC leadership for more than a decade and served as the architect for this joint venture. A labor lawyer by training, Margolin has previously held executive positions at Cigna, was the national COO at Kaiser Permanente and served as President of Anthem Blue Cross (California). She has dedicated her career to pioneering sustainable ways to serve vulnerable populations, developing landmark partnerships to address system-wide fragmentation impeding US healthcare. As co-founder and president of The Margolin Group, she continued this tradition of innovation, focusing on the creation and implementation of large-scale, partnership-driven, performance-based integrated care delivery models, including programs in Rhode Island with RIPCPC, Blue Cross Blue Shield of RI, Care New England and The Providence Center.

Commenting on the decision to pursue this joint venture with RIPCPC, Margolin noted, “Rhode Island is a small but vibrant state that, time and again, has led the nation on critical issues of health and safety. Our selection of Rhode Island as the base of our bicoastal expansion is deliberate. By combining forces, RIPCPC and Akido will partner to share learnings and resources to bring the best of east and west coast care and care experience models to meet the unique needs of each community, to expand access, to enhance the experience of care, and to improve the health and wellbeing of the individuals and communities we serve.”

About Akido:

Akido is leveraging data and artificial intelligence to transform the healthcare experience, focusing on addressing the systemic inequities that lead to chronic illness and vulnerability. Through early interventions designed around social determinants of health (SDoH), best-in-class care and predictive technology, Akido is building a healthcare model that allows for all patients to live their fullest lives. Founded in 2015, Akido was created out of the University of Southern California’s Digital Health Lab with the idea that empowering government, healthcare, and nonprofit services with population-based data could help usher in a new era of preventive public health. Today, Akido is building a full stack medical network that leverages its predictive capabilities to eliminate friction from the care experience for patients and providers. Akido’s proprietary Wellness Graph – one of the country’s most powerful platforms for predicting health and social outcomes – enables the company to identify key markers on a patient’s journey into chronic illness and build preventive programs to address them. Akido’s medical network currently covers more than 250,000 patients in California and will grow to nearly half a million through its partnership with RIPCPC. For more information, visit https://www.akidolabs.com/.

About Rhode Island Primary Care Physicians Corporation (RIPCPC):

RIPCPC, originally formed in 1994, currently represents over 150 primary care practitioners (PCP) from family practice, internal medicine and pediatric medicine. RIPCPC delivers support services that are essential to providing high quality, cost-effective medicine to patients, while also preserving community-based practices. RIPCPC’s PCPs act as primary care providers for over 200,000 Rhode Islanders. RIPCPC has been implementing innovative value-based models for over 20 years, with a focus on developing the National Committee for Quality Assurance’s (NCQA) 'Patient-Centered Medical Home' (PCMH) care delivery model. This patient-centric care delivery model enhances quality, improves access and implements care coordination strategies. RIPCPC has implemented more PCMHs than any other organization in the state and believes it is the core building block of its quality improvement systems and vital to its value-based care delivery model.

In 2014, RIPCPC formed an Accountable Care Organization (ACO), Integra, with the Care New England and South County Health hospital systems with the goal of creating the first virtually integrated health care system in Rhode Island, where clinical team members coordinate care focused on achieving the triple aim of improving quality, reducing costs, and improving patient and physician satisfaction. This coalition was the first of its kind in the region, marked by the participation of an IPA and a hospital system to better coordinate care in a way unmatched in the community. This partnership enabled RIPCPC to build a larger network of primary care physicians, specialists and clinical services to help meet the unique needs of its patients. For more information, visit https://www.ripcpc.com/.

Media Contacts:

Sharna Daduk
Head of Communications, Akido Labs
[email protected]

Andrea Galgay
Chief Operating Officer, RIPCPC
[email protected]