Unlocking Accountable Care

Connecting with community organizations allows providers to better coordinate care, meet patient needs, and provide services in an accessible way. Sarah and Shelia discuss the importance of community connections for community health.

The financial incentives and alternative payment model details play a key role in determining the impact and success of Accountable Care Organizations. Sarah and Dr. Seeley discuss the current financial structures and what trends we are likely to see.

As an ER physician, Dr. Thea James has long been a leading voice advocating for hospitals to invest in addressing the root causes of health that drive people to show up in her ER. In this episode, we will hear about the powerful programs that Dr. James and Boston Medical Center have invested in to improve social determinants of health for patients they serve in Boston.

Doctors are increasingly being pulled in multiple directions based on whether they are still being paid a flat fee for every service they provide, given a lump sum per patient or procedure, or are being asked to focus on the health of an entire patient population. Dr. Namita Mohta and Sarah dive into how providers and healthcare organizations today can navigate these conflicting incentives.

Insurers and providers often see each other as adversaries, but ACO arrangements offer a unique opportunity to align interests and bring them onto the same team. Sarah sits down with Mike Nickey of Fallon Health to discuss how insurers and providers are being more collaborative than ever to implement value-based care.

Dr. John McDonough has been on the forefront of health reform for the better part of three decades – working intimately on the design and passage of both Massachusetts’ landmark 2006 healthcare law and later the Affordable Care Act. In this episode, John sits down with Sarah to discuss what value-based care means for the delivery of medicine, how we got here, and what makes MassHealth’s Medicaid ACO approach unique.