November 25, 2020
Maryland-based health care technology company now working with over 100 physician practices, covering more than 80,000 Medicare beneficiaries across 11 states Bethesda, MD (August 11, 2015) – Less than two months after raising $30 million in Series B
funding, Aledade, Inc. announced today that it has applied to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish new accountable care organizations (ACOs) in seven states beginning Jan. 1, 2016. These additions will bring Aledade’s independent physician partnership model to a wider network of patients across the country – empowering primary care
doctors, boosting quality of care, and lowering health care costs. Aledade will establish new ACOs in West Virginia, Virginia, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The company plans to continue to add partner practices through September.
In addition to the 2016 start ACOs, Aledade has significantly expanded its footprint in four states with ACOs that launched in January 2015. With ACOs across 11 states, Aledade will now cover more than 80,000 Medicare beneficiaries while working with over 100 practices.
Aledade’s expansion comes as the U.S. health care system continues its rapid shift from traditional fee-for-service models towards a greater emphasis on value-based care, accelerated in part by the Affordable Care Act. Over the next several years, nearly half of the annual $3 trillion spent in the U.S. on health care is scheduled to move into value-based payment arrangements, like ACOs, that reward high-quality health care.
Earlier this year, HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell announced that Medicare will shift 50 percent of Medicare reimbursements towards alternative payment models like ACOs by 2018, echoing a goal set by a coalition of private-sector payers. In April, an overwhelming bipartisan majority in Congress voted to give doctors a 5 percent bonus for participating in alternative
Medicare payment systems like ACOs. And last month, Medicare announced it would be instituting mandatory “bundled payment” arrangements for certain procedures.
Aledade equips doctors to navigate the shifting landscape by providing the resources needed to provide better patient care – and capture created value – in this new environment. “Two months ago, we vowed to put our new funding to work by expanding our ACO partnership model to independent primary care physicians across the country,” said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, CEO and co-founder of Aledade, and former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). “Today, we are taking another step to fulfill that promise – and to deliver high-quality, value-based care to doctors and patients across the country. We’ve been working with practices in these states for months, and we’re already seeing the power of placing independent primary care doctors at the center of their patients’ care.”
Aledade has applied to CMS to form new ACOs in:
West Virginia and Virginia, in partnership with the West Virginia Medical Institute and the West Virginia Academy of Family Physicians
Central Florida, in partnership with Primary Partners, LLC
Kansas, in partnership with the Kansas Foundation for Medical Care
Louisiana, in partnership with the Louisiana Healthcare Quality Forum
Tennessee and Mississippi, in partnership with Memphis-based Q Source, the Arkansas
Foundation for Medical Care, and the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians
Each ACO will be led by a dedicated Executive Director from Aledade, working in tandem with a local physician partner as Medical Director. Plainville-based Dr. Jennifer Brull will act as Medical Director of Aledade’s Kansas ACO. “Aledade’s ACO allows doctors to focus on health, not finances,” said Dr. Brull. “Partnering with Aledade gives us the capital, tools, and expertise
to succeed in the new health care environment, and be rewarded for keeping patients healthy. We’ve already been working with the Aledade team for months, and we can’t wait for official CMS recognition.”
John Wiesendanger, CEO of the West Virginia Medical Institute added, “We feel confident our knowledge of West Virginia’s unique health care landscape will help our ACO succeed. But the Aledade team brings decades of expertise, an unmatched knowledge of CMS regulations, and a level of health care technology that we’ve never had access to before. Our physician-led ACO will be the first of its kind in West Virginia, and the changes we’ve made are already empowering our physicians to keep patients healthy – not simply treat them when they’re sick.”
These new ACOs will join pre-existing physician partners in transforming their practices and workflow protocols. Over the past year, Aledade ACO practices have increased preventative care visits by 400 percent and vaccination rates by 250 percent. All Aledade practices offer same or next day appointments for patients with urgent needs, and 95 percent of Aledade physician
partners provide 24 hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week patient access to an on-call doctor. All new and existing ACOs manage these cornerstones of care through Aledade’s proprietary, cloudbased technology and analytics platform.
ABOUT ALEDADE
Founded in 2014, Aledade is a new company with an old-fashioned goal: putting doctors back in control of health care. Aledade partners with independent, primary care physicians to provide everything the doctors need to create and run Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) and other value-based care arrangements – from business and practice transformation services to up-front
capital and cutting-edge technology. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Dr. Farzad Mostashari, former National Coordinator for Health Information Technology at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Aledade employs a team of health policy, regulatory, data and practice transformation experts to implement customized solutions and continuous, local on-the-ground support partners to help doctors in all types of communities across America preserve their autonomy, deliver better care to their patients, reduce overall costs, and keep independent physician practices flourishing. For more, visit: aledade.com or follow them on Twitter at @AledadeACO.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Adam Brickman
(914) 548-3748
[email protected]