Caravan Health, Texas Hospital Association Partner to Launch Statewide ACO
Caravan Health, a company that helps community health systems build accountable care and population health programs, is partnering with the Texas Hospital Association (THA) with the aim to assist hospitals and other healthcare providers succeed under value-based payment models.
Through the new collaborative, THA and Caravan Health will launch Value TX Health, a statewide clinically integrated network focused on achieving the scale and process improvements needed for hospitals and other providers to succeed under value-based payment models. The new initiative will look to provide Texans enrolled in Medicare with coordinated, high-quality healthcare and provide hospitals with the support they need to succeed under risk-based payment models, officials noted in a recent announcement.
The collaborative will focus first on building a readiness program for THA member hospitals to guide and support hospitals in the transition to value-based care models and the complex requirements behind them. The second phase will then focus on increasing the number of hospitals successfully participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP). The operation focuses specifically on current challenges facing hospitals looking to take on new care models but with limited resources.
In early 2019, Caravan Health launched the first statewide collaborative ACO in Mississippi. In this model, the state hospital association acts as a convener to connect hospitals with Caravan’s unique methodology of population health, governance and accountability. This collaborative ACO allows hospitals to achieve the scale necessary for success in the MSSP, Caravan Health’s leaders believe. Since the first launch, Florida and Idaho both have started statewide ACOs supported by Caravan Health.
Caravan Health’s leaders believe that Medicare ACOs should cover about 100,000 lives to just get to desired minimum savings thresholds, but in reality, most ACOs have nowhere near that many; about 80 percent of ACOs have 25,000 or fewer attributed lives. Now, via this statewide ACO model, any Texas hospital in the state can first participate in the readiness program for value-based care and then join the MSSP under one entity.
“The Texas hospital industry has launched several successful ACOs, but for smaller hospitals, the resources needed to devise a successful program are significant,” said Lance Lunsford, president/CEO of THA’s HealthShare program, which will oversee the partnership. “Our partnership with Caravan Health is based on research from a variety of our hospital leaders to help mold a clinically integrated network that helps hospitals succeed in their move to value-based payments.”
In 2017, Caravan Health ACOs surpassed nationwide ACO performance with total savings of more than $54 million and quality scores of 94 percent. Along with Medicare savings, Caravan Health ACOs earned shared savings of more than $15 million—dollars that are routed directly back to the providers doing the work of delivery system reform—and created a reliable new payment stream for participating hospitals, its officials said.
