AMGA announces participation of 19 health systems in ACO Development Collaborative

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) today announced 19 leading medical groups and organized systems of care that will be participating in its ACO Development Collaborative, scheduled to have its first meeting in conjunction with the AMGA National Summit on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). These organizations represent more than 10,500 providers serving approximately 5 million patients in the United States.

"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 Development 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 Development Collaborative will assist member organizations to gain and strengthen the critical capabilities necessary to become a successful ACO. Participating groups include:

•ABQ Health Partners, Albuquerque, NM
•Advocate Physician Partners, Mount Prospect, IL
•Alegent Health Clinic, Omaha, NE
•Arch Health Partners, Poway, CA
•Crystal Run Healthcare LLP, Middletown, NY
•District Medical Group, Phoenix, AZ
•Esse Health, St. Louis, MO
•Harbin Clinic, Rome, GA
•Holzer Clinic, Gallipolis, OH
•Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY
•New Lexington Clinic, PSC, Lexington, KY
•Physicians of Southwest Washington, Seattle, WA
•The Polyclinic, Seattle, WA
•The Portland Clinic, LLP, Portland, OR
•Portland IPA, Portland, OR
•Vanderbilt Medical Group, Nashville, TN
•Walla Walla Clinic, Walla Walla, WA
•Weill Cornell Physician Organization, New York, NY
•Wilmington Health, Wilmington, NC

During the first meeting of the collaborative, participants will dialogue with experts on topics such as:

•The role of purchasers and payers in ACOs
•Creating and sustaining leaders
•Exploring various models for clinical integration
•Critical issues in population management including mental health integration and palliative care
•Building effective care teams
•Standardizing care processes
•Aligning leadership around accountability
•Designing measures of quality and efficiency
•Employing IT systems to support reporting and transparency
•Legal challenges and regulatory hurdles

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 will take place October 1-2 in conjunction with the AMGA National Summit on Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). The first meeting of the ACO Implementation Collaborative will take place in January 2011.

The AMGA ACO Initiative is sponsored by Daiichi-Sankyo, Phytel, Inc., and sanofi-aventis.