June 27, 2023
From coast to coast, we continue to hear from primary care practices and community health centers that haven't made the jump to accountable care yet because they’re overwhelmed by challenges related to staffing, financial stability and/or payer relationships.
With more than a decade’s worth of data proving that the ACO model delivers high quality, high value care, now is not the time for reluctancy. Thousands of primary care organizations are addressing workforce challenges, securing their independence, and staying competitive by joining an Aledade ACO.
We built an ACO model that’s uniquely designed to reduce workloads, minimizing the impact of the primary care workforce crisis.
In the traditional fee-for-service model, the outlook for addressing the primary care workforce crisis is grim, but accountable care models offer viable solutions that can address workforce challenges. Clinicians and support staff have been driven away from primary care in recent years because of the immense documentation and administrative burdens and all that primary care practitioners are expected to do.
The ACO model changes that. Aledade member practices are able to set expectations of how many patients they see during the day and can depend on the care team and office staff for support. We provide practices with outcomes data, performance data, and information on care gaps. Our Aledade App helps staff prepare for upcoming appointments and get better information from hospitals, as patients are being admitted and discharged.
Many of our member practices use revenue earned through the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) to reinvest dollars to address workforce needs through hiring or retaining top staff with bonus programs designed around hitting performance or quality measures.
Beyond workflow improvements, however, we need broad-based policy solutions, such as making it easier and more financially feasible for medical students to choose primary care through loan forgiveness initiatives, and addressing anti-competitive practices like consolidation and non-compete clauses, to name a few. At Aledade, we continue to advocate for those solutions.
In the meantime, we have implemented market-based solutions practices can take advantage of right now. The Aledade FIRST (Fostering Independence, Readiness, Sustainability, and Togetherness) program illuminates the independent primary care pathway by exposing new physicians to value-based care and highlighting opportunities in Aledade FIRST partner practices and community health centers.
Our model delivers proven, long-term sustainability with immediate, year one revenue growth and better patient outcomes.
Joining an Aledade ACO ensures your practice or health center receives full credit for the coordinated, clinically appropriate care you’re already delivering to your patients. By providing patients with quality preventive care, and keeping your patients out of the hospital and the Emergency Department (ED), you have the opportunity to grow revenues through quality incentives for improved care delivery. In addition, beginning in Performance Year 2024, (payment year 2026) qualifying alternative payment model participants (QPs) will receive an increased physician fee schedule update based on the QP conversion factor of 0.75% – a fee-for-service rate three times that of MIPS participants.
Our track record of success is helping practices achieve better quality outcomes. In 2021, of the 475 MSSP ACOs, four of the top 10 spots for per beneficiary savings were Aledade ACOs, including the top performing ACO overall and the top-performing community health center-only ACO. Aledade’s network of MSSP ACOs achieved an average quality score of 94%, with eight MSSP ACOs receiving a perfect score of 100%. Practices achieve these accolades through having access to tools that enable better preventive care and population health management, leading to more Annual Wellness Visits, more Transitional Care Management, and fewer hospitalizations and ED visits.
We build and strengthen primary care relationships with payers.
Beating your benchmark is often easiest in new value-based contracts with health plans as your practice gets access to actionable data through the Aledade App, new resources to invest in expanding the care team, and Aledade practice transformation specialists. But as you continue, it can get harder.
We work to ensure you’re rewarded for maintaining a stable benchmark. It’s a win-win, as health plans want to see the quality and cost improvements you’re achieving as an Aledade member practice. We now have an almost decade-long track record in value, and that gives us the advantage of more strategic contracts in which we can differentiate on value and on quality measurement alignment, and in return, get better contracts and more flexibility in benefit design and tools like reducing prior authorization burden.
Additionally, with Aledade, you’ve got the benefit of our nationally-recognized Policy Team, which is constantly working to ensure the MSSP continues to evolve in a way that makes it attractive for new practices like yours to join and for practices that have been in the program to continue to beat the benchmark and succeed.
Beyond MSSP, we advocate on both the federal and state level around issues that are important to ACOs, such as reducing prior authorization burden, mandating primary care investment, and improving the quality landscape for clinicians and patients. The team is here to answer your questions and keep you up-to-date on the latest changes and updates.
Aledade is here to tackle your toughest challenges.
The best time to join an ACO was when MSSP launched in 2012.
The next best time? Today.
Applications to join an Aledade MSSP ACO for the 2024 performance year are now open. Explore the benefits today.