Advocate Aurora’s ACO Success Is Setting Up Value-Based Healthcare
Advocate Aurora Health has some of the most successful Medicare ACOs, but ACO success is just the starting point for delivering value-based healthcare for all.
Source: Getty Images
By - Accountable care organizations (ACOs) participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program had a record performance year in 2020. The ACOs saved Medicare $4.1 billion while achieving an average quality score of 97.8 percent. One of the health systems participating in the program—Advocate Aurora Health—led the nation in savings and quality.
Advocate Aurora’s affiliated ACOs generated $110 million in savings this past year, bringing total savings to over $414 million since the health system joined the Shared Savings Program in 2012.
The key to ACO success for Advocate Aurora: investments in people, technology, and programs, Gary Stuck, DO, FAAFP, chief medical officer, tells Healthcare Strategies.
Listen to the full podcast to hear more details. And don’t forget to subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.
“Some of our keys to success are those investments,” Stuck explains in the most recent episode. “One of those was integrated platforms.”
Providers across the Advocate Aurora network are now able to tap into the same EHR system to track patients across the care continuum. And this has proven to improve total costs of care, care coordination, and quality of care for patients. The integrated technology has also supported “integrated care management,” another key to ACO success for the midwestern health system.
“We did learn in the prior years that integrated care management was key and touching the patients and reaching out to them, not waiting for them to get worse and show up in the emergency room,” Stuck states. “Touching the patients where they're at is so incredibly important, and then having that cross-continuum information and communication and care coordination.”
While Advocate Aurora has achieved success in the country’s largest value-based care model, the journey is not over for them. The ACO success strategies they’ve implemented and continue to evolve are setting the foundation for value-based healthcare for all.
“It’s essential that we all take a look at our healthcare system and be part of the solution,” Stuck explains. “At Advocate Aurora, we’re very committed to improving care for our patients, but at the same time, trying to solve the problem of healthcare being too expensive. We’ve become emboldened by our success, yet we need to continue to transform care. We need to look at new care models. We are going outside of the MSSP space in value-based care. We need to grow that for continued future success.”
