High-Performing ACOs Recognized for Achievements in Value-Based Care
NAACOS Excellence Awards Presented to Three ACOs at Fall Conference
WASHINGTON – The National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS) recognized three members for their outstanding commitment and accomplishments in leveraging accountable care to transform healthcare by improving quality and outcomes, lowering or slowing growth of costs, and increasing patient and provider satisfaction. At the NAACOS Fall conference, the 2024 NAACOS Excellence Award will be presented to Buena Vida y Salud ACO, Northwell Health, and Providence – Health Connect Partners.
The award recognizes ACOs and value-based care provider groups that demonstrate excellence in patient and community engagement, value culture, innovative use of data and technology, and clinical interventions and driving outcomes. A panel of leadership from NAACOS board of directors and committees selected the winners among a competitive field of applicants. Awardees will provide a deep dive of their work at a breakout session on Friday, October 18th from 9:45 a.m.– 11:15 ET. A summary of their respective work is below.
Buena Vida y Salud ACO
A Shared Savings Program ACO primarily located in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley along the southern border, Buena Vida y Salud ACO in 2022 created its Healthy@Home, which uses data analytics to identify patients at high risk of unplanned admissions and then provide them targeted, high-touch coordinated care program, proactive outreach, and programs that address patient needs, mitigate disease progression, and evaluate social needs. After just six months, the ACO saw an average of 33 percent decrease in ED visits, 22 percent decrease in unplanned admissions, and a decrease in spending for these patients.
Northwell Health
Northwell Health ACO, based in New Hyde Park, N.Y., has over 80,000 attributed lives. The ACO developed an algorithm to identify at-risk patients with hypertension. To expand mental health services, it trained over 230 specialty offices in depression screening and launched a Behavioral Health Access Center which triages patients to determine the appropriate level of care. Through its work, Northwell ACO improved blood pressure control from 67 to 78 percent last year. Additionally, depression screening rates improved across multiple specialties, leading to a 5 percent improvement over the first four months, resulting in an additional 75,000 patients being screened.
Providence – Health Connect Partners
Providence encompasses 51 hospitals, 1,000 clinics and 1.7 million lives in value-based care contracts throughout the western U.S. To promote better outcomes, Providence developed a data dashboard to improve care transitions for all patients across the health system, leading to a 2 percent reduction in readmissions in the dashboard’s first year of use. Additionally, Providence was the first to build an HL7® Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) driven data-as-a-service product that facilitates the exchange of clinical data between providers and payers. In 2022, Providence Health Connect Partners generated the most savings for Medicare of any Shared Savings Program ACO, saving nearly $99 million for CMS.
Background on Accountable Care: ACOs are a market-based solution to fragmented and costly care that empowers local physicians, hospitals, and other providers to work together and take responsibility for improving quality, enhancing patient experience, and reducing waste. Because they take financial accountability for patients’ costs, ACOs have incentives for improving beneficiaries’ health. Value-based payment reforms have generated more than $22 billion in gross savings for Medicare over the last decade and improved the quality of care for millions of patients. More than 13 million beneficiaries are cared for by an ACO, with more than 600,000 physicians and other non-physicians participating. Beyond traditional Medicare models, providers are employing similar value-based care arrangements across all payers.
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Contact:
David Pittman
Director, Communications and Regulatory Affairs
202-640-2689 or dpittman@naacos.com
About NAACOS. NAACOS is a member-led and member-owned nonprofit of more than 470 ACOs in Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial insurance working on behalf of health systems and physician provider organizations across the nation to improve quality of care for patients and reduce health care cost. The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) represents more than 9.1 million beneficiary lives through Medicare’s population health-focused payment and delivery models.
