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Physician Engagement, Data Transparency Earn ACOs Shared Savings

Privia Quality Network has become a top-earner in the MSSP by implementing and refining its physician engagement and data transparency strategies.

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By Jacqueline LaPointe

- Privia Quality Network is one of the top earners of the Medicare Shared Savings Program, the federal government’s largest running accountable care organization (ACO) program. Across its four ACOs, Privia saved the program $380 million in 2021 while earning a weighted average quality score level of 93 percent. The key to their success? Physician engagement and data transparency, says Sam Starbuck, vice president and general manager of Privia Quality Network.

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“Number one, physicians need to have a seat at the table, and number two, it has to always be transparent,” Starbuck shares in the latest episode of Healthcare Strategies.

ACOs have been leading the value-based care transition. However, there is still a disconnect between the goals of the ACO model (reducing costs while maintaining or improving quality, or vice versa) and on-the-ground care delivery.

ACOs can earn shared savings payouts from the MSSP based on their quality and cost performance, but those bonuses don’t always translate to physicians even if they get a cut.

“I’ve heard stories of ACOs [in which] providers get a check and they don’t really know how they earned it,” Starbuck explains. “They need to understand how those dollars are earned and what they did or did not do to earn whatever bonus they receive.”

Privia Quality Network ensures its physicians are well aware of their ACO’s standing. One way the organization does this is through data transparency. Physicians get a list of the top- and bottom-performing clinicians based on MSSP data and other information available to Privia.

“That has fostered a lot of competition,” Starbuck states. “It also fosters the people at the bottom asking, ‘Hey doctor at the top, what are you doing differently? We’re in the same practice, same town, same building, seeing the same population. How are your scores much better?’”

“It creates that natural conversation and group accountability,” Starbuck stresses.

That being said, Privia has learned a lot about data access over the years. The organization ensures that data is consumable at the point of care so physicians know when patients have been admitted to the hospital, for example. But not all of the performance data is there in the EHR.

“This is an area we’ve learned a lot over the years,” Starbuck explains. “The physicians don’t necessarily need to see every aspect…We want to surface everything into a common workflow…for them to make actionable decisions at the right time.”

With physicians engaged with the ACO model and supported with the right information, Privia Quality Network has seen savings increase.

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