PCPCC Launches New Center for Accountable Care, Names Health Care, Industry Leaders as Co-Chairs

New Center will work to ensure that ACOs retain emphasis on patient-centered care

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) announced the creation of a new Center for Accountable Care. The principal aim of the Center will be to help ensure that a strong, robust patient-centered primary care model is at the foundation of accountable care organizations (ACOs) nationwide, and that programs and policies related to ACOs help maintain this focus.  

Based on a survey of the PCPCC membership, the Center will focus on identifying and making recommendations on regulations and policies to advance the success of ACOs with a strong PCMH foundation; identifying and sharing best practices around the establishment of PCMH-centered ACOs; and educating and advocating to multiple stakeholders (governors, other state officials, advocacy/consumer organizations, the media, federal officials) the policy recommendations of the Center.

The PCPCC structures initiatives and projects under its Centers, which are composed of member volunteers and leverage their collective expertise. Each Center has a stated mission and a set of goals, tasks and timeframes for deliverables to continue to advance the patient centered medical home (PCMH).

"Passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has provided an opportunity for health care organizations to structure ACOs, but many questions remain about the role of the medical home within these new payment models," said Edwina Rogers, PCPCC's executive director. "This new Center will serve as a guide to help health care leaders establish primary care and the medical home role firmly within the ACO."

Blair Childs, Ted Epperly, MD, Dana Safran, Sc.D., and Craig Sammit, MD, M.B.A., will serve as co-chairs of the Center. Together, these leaders represent a broad range of constituencies, and each brings special expertise and insight to the conversation. Childs is senior vice president of public affairs for the Premier Healthcare Alliance. Epperly serves as program director and CEO of the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho and as clinical professor of family and community medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He is also past president and board chairman of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Safran is senior vice president for performance measurement and improvement at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and also serves associate professor of medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine. Sammit is CEO for Dean Health System in Madison, Wis., one of the largest integrated health care delivery systems in the country.

"The Center for Accountable Care will help build consensus among a wide variety of stakeholders regarding regulations and strategies to advance a more integrated, coordinated and accountable health care structure," Childs said. 

Sammit agreed. "There is an imperative for the health care industry to evolve from an uncoordinated, volume-based and inefficient system to one that is accountable, reliable, patient-centered and value-based. Redesigning and reinvigorating our primary care model will be a critical driver of delivering better care at a lower cost, and the PCPCC's Center for Accountable Care will play a critical role in this transformation."

The PCPCC is organized to advance the PCMH, the centerpiece of its efforts to transform health care on a national level. It represents the nation's business leaders, consumers, primary care physicians and other health care stakeholders who share that goal.

The new ACO Center will be a much-needed voice advancing the idea that robust, effective and contemporary primary care must be integrated into the ACO.

"Our experience demonstrates the critical importance of primary care at the core of any organization that assumes accountability for overall quality, outcomes and resource use for a patient population," Safran said.

About the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative

The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative is a coalition of more than 700 major employers, consumer groups, organizations representing primary care physicians and other stakeholders who have joined to advance the patient centered medical home. The Collaborative believes that, if implemented, the patient centered medical home will improve the health of patients and the health care delivery system. For more information on the patient centered medical home and a complete list of the PCPCC members, please visit http://www.pcpcc.net/

SOURCE The Patient Centered Primary Care Collaborative