Wilderness Health

Wilderness Health, Inc. is a supporting organization that operates as a collaborative of independent healthcare providers, all of whom are governmental organizations or 501(c)(3) organizations. These healthcare providers provide hospital, medical and other Health care services to the general public in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern wisconsin.the purpose of our organization is to advance patient and community Health outcomes, improve patient experience, and lower the costs of providing Health care services by working together with our members to explore ways they can provide their charitable services more effectively and efficiently to the general public and the Health care community as a whole. We are specifically focused on Health issues in the rural communities our members serve and where their patient bases reside.our current initiatives are the following:- coordinating and improving patient care using evidence-based medicine;- providing quality, local healthcare in rural communities that our members serve;- identifying shared service and purchasing opportunities between our members to maximize operating efficiencies and reduce costs of providing our services;- exploring alternative payment opportunities, such as accountable care organizations, with payers as the system transitions from fee-for- service to fee-for-value, and evaluating whether we are positioned to leverage those changes to improve the patient experience and lower costs;- work with key community stakeholders to improve the continuum of care and identify gaps in care; and- integrate data between our members to enable better care coordination and care planning for patients who are served by more than one of our members.in january 2015, Wilderness Health signed a contract with the state of Minnesota to become an integrated Health partnership (ihp), which is a demonstration medicaid accountable care organization (aco). Ihps are part of Minnesota's efforts to accelerate participation in alternative payment models of payment for attributed medicaid patients with the goal of improving the Health of patients while reducing the total cost of care. Providers are measured against targets for cost and quality and receive claims data and analysis from the state regarding their patients. As of december 31, 2022, there were 16,922 patients attributed to Wilderness Health in connection with the ihp.through the review of its claims and clinical data, Wilderness Health has identified the following quality initiatives:1. Develop a program to augment care coordination of depression care into primary care;2. Reduce non-emergent emergency room utilization; and3. Access to preventative care visits.we've developed a subcommittee for each initiative that includes staff from the governmental and 501(c)(3) organization that Wilderness Health supports, indepedent providers (such as behavioral Health, counties, community-based organizations, and local universities that collaborate with Wilderness Health and its supported organizations and patients.

Wilderness Health has been acting as a fiscal sponsor for a local nonprofit organization to support covid-19 grant-funded outreach and education efforts to the local african heritage community. This work includes mask distribution, community surveys, education, testing, and vaccine outreach efforts. Through 2020 this was with the duluth naacp and has shifted to Health equity northland as of 2021.