The Independent Physician Association of Georgia (IPAG) is a rapidly expanding primary care network formed to address the changes in the Georgia Medicaid Managed care market.  The purpose of the IPA of Georgia is to give physicians a voice in making decisions that affect them is this rapidly changing environment. 

The Georgia Healthy Families program is designed to take the old Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids programs and incorporate them into a managed care environment.  The new program will incorporate more than one million Georgians on Medicaid, a job which had previously cost the state and federal governments about $2.5 billion a year.  Governor Sonny Perdue and DCH chose to pursue managed care because the costs of providing Medicaid through the traditional fee-for-service system are outpacing the State's ability to pay.  The managed care initiative is designed to save the state money, while improving the long-term health of Medicaid recipients and encouraging them to seek primary and preventive care, rather than going to the emergency room. The state held stakeholders meetings for hospitals, doctors and other groups who will be affected by the change.  As a result of a bidding process, three health plans (AmeriGroup, Peach State and WellCare) were selected as the vehicle to provide health care services to this population in need.

The IPA of Georgia has capitation and shared risk contracts with all three health plans in its service area markets.  By having primary care physicians sign exclusive agreements with our new IPA, we have leverage we can use to ensure that our participating physicians get the best rates and don't get forced into a bad contract.  For more information on the IPA of Georgia, the coming changes in Medicaid, and the favorable economics of joining our IPA, please call us at (626) 575-1997 or ( 404) 273-5239, or email us.