UTSCAP and GAPN aim to improve patient care, reduce costs through unique ACO affiliation

Covering a patient area of 400 square miles, a new accountable care organization (ACO) affiliation between UT Southwestern Clinically Affiliated Physicians (UTSCAP) and Genesis Accountable Physician Network (GAPN) is set to offer exceptional and comprehensive care to patients across North Texas.

The ACO, known as UT Southwestern Accountable Care Network (UTSACN), is based on a strategy to align primary and specialty care physicians, hospitals, and payers in order to provide better access to care, better clinical quality, and control costs. The network is made up of faculty physicians at UT Southwestern Medical Center and independent physicians practicing in Dallas County and surrounding areas.

"This new network between UT Southwestern faculty and independent physicians reflects our commitment to a common standard of care that is of the highest quality," said Bruce Meyer, M.D., Executive Vice President for Health System Affairs at UT Southwestern, and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "For patients, the network offers more choices and greater access to world-class medical services closer to their homes, ranging from primary care to the most complex specialty care. For physicians, the clinical integration achieved through the network enables them to have advanced analytics and comprehensive patient information at their fingertips to better manage care," added Dr. Meyer, who holds the T.C. Lupton Family Professorship in Patient Care, in Honor of Dr. John Dowling McConnell and Dr. David Andrew Pistenmaa.

A unique feature of the affiliation combines the physician leadership of GAPN and UTSW to lead UTSACN, optimizing the input from community and faculty physicians in creating effective practice transformation. "To be successful in the current environment of health care, physicians need to lean in to change. That is, embrace and implement clinical integration, population health management, and aligned reimbursement models," said Jim Walton, D.O., MBA, and President and CEO of Genesis Physicians Group. Dr. Walton, who will also serve as the President of UTSACN, stated: "Physicians who don't make changes now or in the near future may run the risk of becoming marginalized by the shifting payment system. Our ACO chose to align with UT Southwestern's robust, clinically integrated population health infrastructure to provide our members with the greatest opportunity for future success."

Mack C. Mitchell, M.D., Chief Medical Officer for UTSACN, noted, "Integration of primary care physicians and specialists provides a tremendous opportunity to improve access and avoid unnecessary testing and procedures through shared records, analytical tools, and care coordination. Both UTSACN and GAPN demonstrated success in improving measures of quality and reducing costs of care in the Medicare Shared Savings Plan in 2014. We believe that the ability of our physicians to provide accessible, high value, state-of-the-art care to their patients will be enhanced by the affiliation of UTSACN and GAPN."

The network links community physicians with the faculty practice and resources of UT Southwestern in a way that benefits patients and the North Texas medical community. Members will have access to tools for population risk stratification, predictive modeling, sophisticated disease registries, point-of-care management, and automated appointment reminders, as well as access to patient-centered medical home expertise, and practice-level quality and utilization performance reports with peer comparisons.

UTSACN will hold value-based contracts, as well as traditional fee-for-service contracts.