On Friday, the NCMS Community Practitioner Program (CPP) will officially celebrate its 20th Anniversary at the Raleigh Marriott City Center Hotel. Current and past CPP providers will join supporters and representatives of CPP Partnerships in celebrating and renewing the program’s goal of providing access to quality medical care to economically distressed and medically underserved communities in North Carolina.
Since it was launched in 1989, the NCMS Community Practitioner Program has been working to address many of the concerns and needs now being targeted by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Through the NCMS Foundation’s PractEssentials Program, the CPP is supporting and working on adoption of health information technology, regional extension centers and health information exchange programs, as it works to build and increase medical homes in rural and underserved communities. Partnerships with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation and the North Carolina Physician Institute for Quality will be focusing on quality of care and innovative practices that will address chronic disease prevention, mental health and other needs.
“Through medical education loan repayments and scholarships, we have been able to attract top notch medical professionals who are working to provide evidence-based clinical and community-based prevention and wellness programs across the state, particularly in rural and low-income areas,” said NCMS EVP, CEO Robert W. Seligson. The NCMS Foundation oversees the CPP and is directed by Maggie Sauer, Associate Executive Director of the Foundation.
A $4.5 million grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Trust Fund in 1989 helped to establish the CPP, which is seeking to create a $20 million endowment to continue and expand the program. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation gave a matching grant of $10 million in 2006, with additional fundraising efforts expected to help the CPP achieve its goal in the near future.
Read the news release about the CPP 20th Anniversary and learn more about the program at: http://www.ncmsfoundation.org/pages/comm_pract_prog/our_successes.html, or at: https://www.compassionatecarenc.org/pages/public/media_pub_affairs/media.html.
