AMGA ACO Implementation Collaborative to meet January 26-28, 2011 in Scottsdale

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) today announced 16 leading medical groups and organized systems of care that will be participating in its ACO Implementation Collaborative, scheduled to have its first meeting January 26-28, 2011 at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona.

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

•Crystal Run Healthcare, New York
•Esse Health, Missouri
•Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, Massachusetts
•Henry Ford Medical Group, Michigan
•Holston Medical Group, Tennessee
•Mercy Medical Group, California
•Mount Carmel HealthProviders, Ohio
•MultiCare Medical Associates, Washington
•PriMed Physicians, Ohio
•Princeton Medical Group, P.A., New Jersey
•ProHealth Physicians, Inc., Connecticut
•Riverside Medical Group, Virginia
•Sutter Health, California
•SwedishAmerican Health System, Illinois
•Wenatchee Valley Medical Center, Washington
•White-Wilson Medical Center, Florida

In AMGA's ACO Implementation Collaborative, participants will learn how to:

•Create governance and leadership structures that support aligned vision and mission around value-based health care
•Integrate care across all healthcare providers, community/public agencies, and social service organizations to work toward improved outcomes for broad patient populations
•Maintain sufficient capital to fund all essential aspects of ACO implementation
•Develop relationships/partnerships/agreements to support innovative pricing and distribution of premium dollars/shared savings
•Avoid the legal pitfalls that may arise from current fraud and abuse and anti-kickback laws
•Implement the Patient-Centered Medical Home model enterprise-wide and demonstrate continuous improvement on clinical outcomes, patient experience, and cost
•Integrate mental health into primary care and develop end-of-life and palliative care programs that improve the patient experience and reduce cost
•Implement IT systems that support measurement, monitoring, and reporting on both cost and quality
•Collaborative members also will play an important role in developing methodologies consistent with the regulatory environment that lead to success, i.e., thresholds, patient attribution, risk adjustment, shared savings, etc.

AMGA is convening two collaboratives focused on ACOs: the Development Collaborative and an Implementation Collaborative. The collaboratives 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 took 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 January 26-28, 2011 at the Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, Arizona.

The AMGA ACO Initiative is sponsored by Abbott Laboratories, Daiichi-Sankyo, Optum Health, Ortho-McNeil, Phytel, Inc., Premera Blue Cross, Robert Bosch Healthcare, sanofi-aventis, and VHA Inc. For information of how to become an initiative sponsor, contact Fred Haag at [email protected] or (703) 838-0033, ext. 329.