Richard Merkin (Heritage Provider Network) Richard Merkin, M.D. has more than 35 years of experience in health care with specific expertise in the development and administration of integrated delivery systems. His leadership has inspired the formation of over 28 group model and IPA structures in California, New York and Arizona. In 1979, Dr. Merkin founded the predecessor to Heritage Provider Network (HPN), which currently serves nearly 700,000 individuals in California, making it one of the largest IPA’s in the United States. The New York operation currently serves over 115,000 individuals, including over 30,000 Medicare Advantage beneficiaries. The Arizona group, which just began operations on January 1, 2012, is already serving a large Medicare Advantage population throughout Maricopa County. This growth is the direct result of a proven ability to improve the health of a population while at the same time lowering costs and increasing quality.
In addition to creating and growing integrated delivery networks, Dr. Merkin has a long-standing interest in both prevention and cure. He is Co-Founder of FasterCures, an “action think tank” that seeks to speed up the time it takes to get important new medicines from discovery to patients. He founded the Heritage Medical Research Institute, a non-profit medical research corporation emphasizing health care quality and outcomes studies. Finally, Dr. Merkin has recently endowed two scholars at the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institute to study payment reform and clinical leadership and funded the Brain and Health Innovation Program at the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute at the Keck School of Medicine.
Dr. Merkin’s commitment to supporting academic research runs deep. He established The Richard Merkin Foundation for Stem Cell Research at the Broad Institute at Harvard and MIT, The Richard Merkin Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Brain Sciences Institute, and The Richard Merkin Foundation for Neural Regeneration at UCLA. He is on the Board of Trustees at the California Institute of Technology and the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. Additionally, he is on the Board of Directors at the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. In 2007, Dr. Merkin endowed the Richard Merkin Distinguished Fellowship in Emergency and Tropical Medicine in the Division of Internal Medicine at the Keck School. He is a member of the board of the California Association of Physician Groups.