Donor Spotlight: Ochsner Health Featuring Philip M. Oravetz, M.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.

Dr. Oravetz is the chief population health officer for Ochsner Health in New Orleans, Louisiana. In this position, he provides physician leadership to the system’s value-based contract portfolio, including Ochsner’s Accountable Care Network, which is the largest integrated delivery system in southeast Louisiana. Dr. Oravetz joined Ochsner Health over 10 years ago with more than 20 years of innovative healthcare leadership experience in both administration and medicine. In 2020 he joined AMGA’s Board of Directors and in 2022 he was appointed as the AMGA Board Liaison on AMGA Foundation’s Board. He is very active in AMGA Foundation programs and has served as an advisor on the Medicare Advantage and Osteoporosis Best Practices Learning Collaboratives.  Dr. Oravetz is a Campaign Advocate contributor, and Ochsner Health is a Campaign Cabinet Leadership Donor in support of the Campaign for a Healthier America.

How did participating in our Together2Goal^® (T2G) national diabetes campaign enable Ochsner Health to improve care for patients with Type 2 diabetes?

Ochsner Health is a longtime participant and strong supporter of AMGA Foundation quality health initiatives. The ability to consistently measure our performance, benchmark against other participants, and use collaborative planks (evidence-based best practices) has been invaluable. In T2G, we implemented the campaign planks to transform our diabetes improvement efforts, and we continue to utilize this framework. The model of performance is proven, sustainable and results in significant improved patient outcomes in diabetes.

Can you share an example of how a Foundation quality initiative impacted Ochsner’s bottom line?

Ochsner Health participates in a variety of value-based initiatives, with financial results gated by quality metric performance. Utilizing both Measure Up/Pressure Down®, and T2G national health campaigns, along with several Best Practices Learning Collaboratives, Ochsner Health has consistently improved our quality metric performance in MA 5-STAR programs, Medicaid Quality, Medicare ACO, and other commercial value contracts to increase our savings rates. In fact, we were major contributors in helping two of our local payor partners achieve 5-STAR ranking in their MA programs.

Ochsner has participated in ten quality initiatives over the years including our latest Osteoporosis Best Practices Learning Collaborative and Rise to Immunize™ campaign.  Why do you think it is especially important for organizations to participate in Foundation programs now given the challenges of COVID?

Ochsner Health seeks to continually improve the care of the patient populations in the communities we serve. AMGA collaboratives provide us with a framework, toolset, and exposure to best practices from around the country to accomplish that.  As we continue our movement into value based care, AMGA Foundation programs helps us to continue to overcome the adversity of COVID, and focus on the long-term health of our community.