Bethesda, Md.-based Aledade, a company focused on physician-led accountable care organizations (ACOs), has announced that its primary care ACO network has doubled in size.
Since January 2016, Aledade ACOs now include over 200 independent, physician-led practices in 15 states, representing more than 200,000 covered lives and nearly $2 billion in health care spending.
“Aledade’s growth in such a short amount of time demonstrates that there is a real thirst for a new model of primary care, one that empowers physicians to succeed,” Farzad Mostashari, M.D., CEO and co-founder of Aledade and former National Coordinator for Health IT, said in a statement. “As we enter this next phase of growth, we will look for more opportunities for Aledade to enter new markets through public as well as private payers and partnerships that help our doctors deliver better outcomes, boost quality, and lower costs.”
This year, Aledade and its network of primary care practices added ACOs in four new states for the 2017 ACO program year: Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Utah.
The company has also moved beyond Medicare, signing agreements with four private payers to provide coordinated care. Aledade now has commercial agreements with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, Florida Blue, and West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency.
Aledade launched in 2014, and by 2015 the company expanded initially from New York, Maryland, Delaware, and Arkansas to include West Virginia, Louisiana, Kansas, Mississippi, and Florida. Last year, the company reported that it was on course to triple the number of covered Medicare beneficiaries in Aledade ACOs from approximately 25,000 in 2014, to more than 75,000 in over 100 physician practices by the end of 2015.
and Aledade’s growth is supported by funding from venture capital firms Venrock, ARCH Venture Partners, and Biomatics Capital.
“After building a robust foundation in Medicare Shared Savings Programs across the country, we are now broadening our reach with new partnerships that enable independent primary care practices to take advantage of value-based opportunities with payers that have previously only been available to large physician networks and hospital providers,” Daniel J. Krifcher, chief commercial officer at Aledade, said in a prepared statement.
“Partnering in an Aledade ACO helped my practice implement the population health management tools needed to deliver high-quality, coordinated care. This partnership grants us comprehensive data that allows us to expand value-based care to both our Medicare and commercial patients, allowing us greater insight into their total health,” Jen Brull, M.D., physician owner at Post Rock Family Practice and medical director for the Aledade Kansas ACO, said in a statement.
Additionally, the company has reported that in 2015, the Aledade Primary Care ACO—with practices in Maryland, New York, and Arkansas—was in the 98th percentile of quality scores across all 327 ACOs that began in 2012 and 2014, and the Aledade Delaware ACO was in the 88th percentile.
According to a company press release, at the practice level, Aledade ACOs had a 251 percent average increase in preventive care visits and a 175 percent average increase in transitional care services in 2015. The ACOs also saw a decrease in emergency department visits, hospital utilization, and hospital readmission rates. And the company is reporting that Aledade ACOs had a $51,000 average increase in practice revenue.
