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4 February 2011

16 Health Systems Convene at AMGA Collaborative on Implementing Accountable Care Organizations

ALEXANDRIA, VA - The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) recently convened leadership teams from 16 leading medical groups and organized systems of care at the inaugural meeting of the AMGA ACO Implementation Collaborative in Scottsdale, Arizona.

"AMGA and its member medical groups are the vanguard of health care in America, developing and delivering effective, efficient health care to the patients they serve," said Donald W. Fisher, Ph.D., CAE, president and chief executive officer at AMGA. "For over a decade, AMGA has used learning collaboratives to improve organizational performance through systematic change, and recent reform legislation has inspired members to use the ACO model as an impetus to transform the delivery and financing of care. Through the ACO Implementation Collaborative, participants will create a community of knowledge that will assist them to transform their organizations from early adopters into successful ACOs and provide best practices for future adopters."

AMGA's yearlong ACO Implementation Collaborative will assist member organizations to gain and strengthen the critical capabilities necessary to become a successful ACO. Participating groups include:

Crystal Run Healthcare, New York
Esse Health, Missouri
Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, Massachusetts
Henry Ford Medical Group, Michigan
Holston Medical Group, Tennessee
Mercy Medical Group, California
Mount Carmel HealthProviders, Ohio
MultiCare Medical Associates, Washington
PriMed Physicians, Ohio
Princeton Medical Group, P.A., New Jersey
ProHealth Physicians, Inc., Connecticut
Riverside Medical Group, Virginia
Sutter Health, California
SwedishAmerican Health System, Illinois
Wenatchee Valley Medical Center, Washington
White-Wilson Medical Center, Florida

Participants at the inaugural meeting, held January 26-28, 2011 at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona, expressed enthusiasm about the collaborative. Don Wreden, M.D., president at Sutter Medical Group, stated, "Our team learned a great deal. From that experience, we felt a combination of fear, excitement, and validation for the work we have done. We look forward to working together with AMGA moving forward."

In AMGA's ACO Implementation Collaborative, participants will learn how to:

Create governance and leadership structures that support aligned vision and mission around value-based health care
Integrate care across all healthcare providers, community/public agencies, and social service organizations to work toward improved outcomes for broad patient populations
Maintain sufficient capital to fund all essential aspects of ACO implementation
Develop relationships/partnerships/agreements to support innovative pricing and distribution of premium dollars/shared savings
Avoid the legal pitfalls that may arise from current fraud and abuse and anti-kickback laws
Implement the Patient-Centered Medical Home model enterprise-wide and demonstrate continuous improvement on clinical outcomes, patient experience, and cost
Integrate mental health into primary care and develop end-of-life and palliative care programs that improve the patient experience and reduce cost
Implement IT systems that support measurement, monitoring, and reporting on both cost and quality
Collaborative members also will play an important role in developing methodologies consistent with the regulatory environment that lead to success, i.e., thresholds, patient attribution, risk adjustment, shared savings, etc.

AMGA is convening two collaboratives focused on ACOs: the Development Collaborative and an Implementation Collaborative. The collaboratives will offer access to content experts and provide a forum in which peer organizations can learn from one another as they begin to build and refine business and care processes to develop high-quality, efficient, and sustainable systems of care that provide high-value care to their patients and communities. The first meeting of the ACO Development Collaborative took place in October 2010 and was attended by representatives from 22 healthcare systems.

The AMGA ACO Initiative is sponsored by Abbott, Bosch Healthcare, Daiichi Sankyo, OptumHealth, Ortho-McNeil, Phytel, Inc., Premera Blue Cross, sanofi-aventis, and VHA Inc. For information on how to become an initiative sponsor, contact Fred Haag at fhaag@amga.org or (703) 838-0033 ext. 329.

Background
For many years, AMGA has pushed for reform efforts that foster the creation of community-based entities accountable for comprehensive healthcare services, referred to as ACOs in the recently passed healthcare legislation, that promote accountability and build on the practice patterns of high-performing organizations. The organization, in fact, provided guidance to congressional leaders on the appropriate language regarding ACOs and lobbied aggressively for its inclusion.

As part of its continuing efforts, the association hosted a series of regional meetings in 2010 that brought together the thought leaders of healthcare delivery systems to educate medical groups on how to develop, operate, and maintain high-performing ACOs. The meetings focused on physician-led, patient-centered ACOs and went beyond the theoretical by bringing together actual case studies presented by medical group leaders with firsthand experience in providing accountable care to their patients. AMGA's Institute for Quality Leadership (IQL), subtitled the "AMGA National Summit on ACOs," and the collaboratives continue the work of regional meetings by bringing groups from across the country to share their insights and strategies.

The American Medical Group Association represents medical groups, including some of the nation's largest, most prestigious medical practices, independent practice associations, and integrated healthcare delivery systems. AMGA's mission is to improve health care for patients by supporting multispecialty medical groups and other organized systems of care. The members of AMGA deliver health care to approximately 110 million patients in 49 states, nearly 1 in 3 Americans. Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, AMGA is the strategic partner for medical groups, providing a comprehensive package of benefits, including political advocacy, educational and networking programs and publications, benchmarking data services, and financial and operational assistance. www.amga.org

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