(BPT) - Since joining Aledade in 2022, Coal Creek Family Medicine, a small independent practice in Louisville, Colorado, has used Aledade's proprietary population health tool and in-practice support to close care gaps and enhance quality care delivery.
'Being a member of Aledade has encouraged us to keep working toward quality care and make sustainable changes in our practice. Aledade has been the most supportive and involved partner we have encountered,' said Lisa Talamantes, M.D., physician owner of Coal Creek Family Medicine. 'We have learned a lot about our practice through Aledade's robust data collection and reporting. Aledade has helped us to look at ourselves more critically and to find ways to improve our care.'
Coal Creek Family Medicine's story of success corresponds with the experience of so many of Aledade's 1,900-plus member primary care practices, clinics and health centers throughout the United States.
The nation's largest and most successful enabler of physician-led value-based care, Aledade continues to draw more physicians to its unique, clinician-empowered model. In just 10 years, Aledade has formed partnerships with 20,000 physicians and clinicians in 45 states and the District of Columbia to serve nearly 2.5 million patients. Aledade also offers more than 200 value-based contracts across Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid and nearly every national payer.
And just this year alone, Aledade has added to its network more than 400 new primary care practices, clinics and community health centers, as well as more than 60 health plan contracts.
'For more than a decade, we've been partnering with primary care physicians across the country in their transition to value-based care,' said Farzad Mostashari, M.D., co-founder and CEO of Aledade, Inc., 'so they can do more not only to help their patients and better serve their communities, but also to make sure their practices and health centers thrive.'
Right for doctors, patients and society
Aledade's mission - to do what is right for doctors, patients and society - is at the core of its physician-led model. Through this proven, scalable model, which includes cutting-edge data analytics, user-friendly guided workflows, health care policy expertise, strong payer relationships, and integrated care solutions delivered, Aledade empowers physicians to succeed financially by keeping people healthy.
As a result of joining Aledade's ACO, Pershing Health System went from owing Medicare money at the end of the year to earning shared savings in the Medicare Shared Savings Program. The Brookfield, Missouri-located practice is using those earnings to plan for future projects, expansions and more staff in just two years.
'Care gaps, patient goals and annual wellness visits - we were not excelling in these areas,' said Kelly Schwager DNP, NP-C, director of Rural Health Clinics at Pershing Health System. 'With Aledade's support, Pershing Health System successfully recaptured opportunities to address patient care needs and prevent hospitalizations.'
With the customized tools and hands-on support provided by Aledade, in the 2022 performance year, Pershing Health System achieved 96% emergency department follow-up and 100% comprehensive advanced care planning worklist entry completion, and increased their annual wellness visit completion rate by 39%. As a result, the organization achieved shared savings revenues and is now planning for a bright future.
'With our growing clinics, we are hoping to earmark some of the shared savings to expand our walls in the future,' Schwager explained.
Nation's top-performing ACOs are with Aledade
The physician- and patient-first approach is increasingly attractive to independent practices like Columbia Medical Practice in Howard County, Maryland, which needs the same level of resources offered by large, health system-owned ACOs, but wants to retain ownership of their practices.
'We took the opportunity to be part of a health system ACO, but learned we needed more support that recognized our priorities in independent care,' said Sohail Khwaja, executive director of Columbia Medical Practice. 'The support we received from Aledade in the first three months was exponentially greater than what we had ever seen before ... We're getting the support. We're getting the funding. We are getting the resources we need to take care of our patients.'
This investment in the success of its members has yielded tremendous results for Aledade's ACOs. Among the top 10 Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs in the United States, five are Aledade ACOs. Those five include a large, suburban practice, a small, micro practice and rural practices focused on a predominantly minority population, underscoring the fact that Aledade empowers all kinds of practices - city, rural; large, small, etc. - nationwide.
Aledade ACOs continue to outperform other tenured ACOs in quality scores and Medicare shared savings. To wit, practices within Aledade's ACOs have generated more than three times the savings rate of non-Aledade practices, while also delivering quality scores nearly 4% better.
With those stellar performance results, physicians like Laura Theis, M.D., president of Central Coast Family Care in Santa Maria, California, are passionate about continuing their value-based care journeys with Aledade as their partner.
'(Participating in value-based care with Aledade) has definitely been an additional source of income, and not a small one. It's been viewed very favorably by the physicians, and it's brought the entire staff a better understanding of how we can affect the patient experience,' Theis said. 'More and more Medicare and commercial insurances are moving away from fee-for-service and toward a value-based platform. Aledade does an excellent job of supporting that, and I hope our practice continues to thrive and continues to grow in this partnership.'
Is your primary care organization ready to explore value-based care with a partner committed to your success? Visit https://info.aledade.com/get-started to get started.
