IDD Insights

In addition to providing IDD Insights to the broader human services community, Dr. Merahn is also the founder of the LTC Health System (currently LTC Provider Care and LTC Community Care) a ‘health system without walls’ that seeks to reimagine long-term care as person-centered need- and resource-defined rather than location based. The LTC Health System views long-term care as a commitment to continuity-driven longitudinal care for medically complex and disabled individuals, irrespective of where they live.  

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Most recently Dr. Merahn was Medical Director for Partnerships Solutions, a managed services organization for two New York State nonprofit organizations exclusively serving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD):  CareDesign NY, a care coordination organization/health home authorized by the NYS Office of People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) providing care to almost 30,000 children and adults with IDD and Partners Health Plan, a novel fully integrated managed care demonstration project authorized by the CMS, the NYS Department of Health and OPWDD.

 

Before joining Partnership Solutions, Dr. Merahn served as a clinical consultant to ISNP Longevity Health Plan, and was Chief Medical Officer for Centria Autism Services, serving 3000 children with autism in 10 states.  He remains deeply committed to the autism community, serving on the Autism Subcommittee of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Council on Children with Disabilities, the Primary Care Committee of the AAP Section on Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and is the only physician on the Council of Autism Services Providers (CASP) Autism Commission on Quality.  

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Prior to Centria, he was Chief Medical Officer for US Medical Management where he led the 14-state, 42-office home-based primary care network serving almost 40,000 frail/disabled patients into value-based care, becoming one of the highest performing ACO’s in the country, by focusing on managing the patient/family journey, care delivery redesign and mission-driven provider engagement.

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Dr. Merahn is an established thought leader and national speaker on the healthcare transformation and a vocal advocate for health equity and the power of human-factors in care delivery and health status improvement for both patients and communities, rooted in collaboration, systems innovation and healthcare interaction design.  He is the author of Care Evolution: Essays on Health Care as a Social Imperative which advocates for health as a social imperative and for integrated person-centered healthcare as a fundamentally human endeavor.

 

He regularly presents at the national meetings such as the Special Needs Plan Leadership Conference, Medicaid Leadership Innovation, NCQA Innovation Summit, Association of Developmental Medicine and Dentistry, the of the Association of Professonal Behavior Analysts (ABPA), Council of Autism Services Providers (CASP), Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI),  Medical Group Management Association, Beckers Healthcare Conference and HIMSS, and has provided expert counsel and testimony on behavioral health integration to State Legislatures, Regulators and Departments of Health and Education.

 

A graduate of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, he completed his internship and residency in Pediatrics at Montefiore Medical Center and Jacobi Hospital in New York City. He also completed three years of training at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia, including a two-year post-graduate certificate program in Child and Adolescent Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.

 

Dr. Merahn began his career as a Medical Director with the NYC Department of Health, where, reporting to a Deputy Commissioner, he led policy and program development initiatives in early childhood education, 0-3 early intervention, children with special needs, homeless health, and lead poisoning control.