Bethesda, Md.-based Aledade announced this week two new partnerships with Baton Rouge-based Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum and Topeka-based Kansas Foundation for Medical Care to help independent physicians in each respective state launch and manage accountable care organizations.
Aledade works with independent physician practices to provide the regulatory expertise, administrative and technological services, and in-person support necessary to set up and operate an ACO led by independent primary care physicians.
"Family physicians have a unique connection with their patients," Farzad Mostashari, MD, CEO and co-founder of Aledade, said in a statement. "They are best positioned to lead the transformation towards value-based health care, and our ACO will empower them to do so."
The Aledade organizations will be the first independent physician-led Medicare ACOs in both Louisiana and Kansas. In Louisiana, the Quality Forum brings together providers, payers and consumers to reshape healthcare through health IT initiatives. It manages the state's Regional Extension Center and is administrator of the Louisiana Health Information Exchange. It will work with Aledade to recruit physicians to form an ACO focused on preventive care, high-value referral networks, technology and data analytics.
In Kansas, Aledade and KFMC are working to recruit a group of core physician practices in Wichita and Western Kansas to lead the ACO. Jennifer Brull, MD, the first physician in Kansas to attest to meaningful use, has been appointed medical director of the Kansas ACO.
Aledade also recently launched partnerships in West Virginia and Tennessee.
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