Value-Based Care Leader, Equality Health, Brings Quality and Culturally Competent Care to Tennessee's Underserved Communities

• Nashville metro, as well as the East and Middle Grand Divisions of Tennessee are priority.
• Company's unique services designed to help independent primary care practices seamlessly shift to Value-Based Care (VBC) and to enhance population health in underserved communities.
• Equality Health in now enabling primary care networks in three states: AZ, TX and TN.

PHOENIX, Nov. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Equality Health, a leading developer of high-performing value-based physician networks uniquely equipped to address the needs of diverse and historically underserved populations, today announced its continued national expansion with the launch of its presence in Tennessee and an initial market focus in Nashville and the East and Middle Grand Divisions of the state.

This news follows on the heels of the VBC leader's expanded presence across Texas. In just over one year, Equality Health's Texas coverage has broadened to serve 168 primary care practices including a total of 737 providers across 343 clinics and center locations. The company's Texas presence now spans across eight metro areas to support successful VBC for more than 165,000 patients. 

"We are pleased to announce the next step in our continued national expansion plans with a presence in Tennessee," said Hugh Lytle, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Equality Health. "As we drive the industry toward value-based care, we view primary care practices as the engine of change, as many times they are the first touchpoint for patients on their care journey. We want to support primary care practices, especially those located in underserved communities, and help them flourish across the nation, as they preserve access to quality care for all. We look forward to partnering with practices in Nashville and expanding across the state in the future." 

Equality Health is a leader in the VBC movement focused on independent primary care practices. The company offers an innovative, comprehensive set of solutions including:

• Value-based contract participation opportunities with a broad range of Medicaid, Medicare, and Commercial payers including with such companies as Centene, United Healthcare, Aetna, Amerigroup, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Humana, among others.
• A financial incentive plan for practices that offers network participants the opportunity to transition to VBC without accepting insurance risk including pre-payments for completing patient care activities that lead to quality improvement and lower per-capita cost of care. Through this model, practices don't have to wait for the lengthy remittance processes inherent in traditional payer-shared savings programs.
• Culturally competent care training that equips practice staff with the baseline customer service knowledge required for whole-patient care delivery addressing diverse populations.
• Easy-to-use CareEmpower technology platform which expertly tracks patient populations across payer contracts, proactively triggers alerts for wellness and chronic care visits, and provides reporting of performance on contractual quality metrics.  Seamless integration with a practice's EMR aids in patient tracking from a single data set.
• Dedicated Performance Practice Managers who provide ongoing VBC consulting services including helping providers to optimize practice workflows and access wrap-around services to address patients' Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) needs. 

According to Equality Health research, the average life expectancy in Tennessee is 2.2 years less than the U.S. average, and a range of health inequities impact the state's rural, diverse, and underserved communities.

"This expansion will help more healthcare providers engage with health plans in alternative payment models to improve population health," said Craig Gaites, President of Emerging Markets, Equality Health. "By joining Equality Health's value-based physician network and consolidating their populations on the CareEmpower platform, primary care physicians receive our easy-to-use comprehensive VBC tools and services so that they can focus their valuable time and resources on treating the patients who need care the most."

Tennessee-based independent primary care practices interested in learning more about how they can help address these inequities, as well as the benefits of joining the Equality Health VBC Physician's Network can visit this microsite. Health plans interested in more details about Equality Health's comprehensive value-based care model can learn more at the health plan resource page.

About Equality Health
Equality Health, LLC is a Phoenix-based whole-health delivery system focused on transforming value-based care delivery with population-specific programs that improve access, quality, and member trust. Through an integrated technology and services platform, culturally competent provider network and personalized care model, Equality Health helps managed care plans and health systems improve outcomes for diverse populations while simultaneously making the transition to risk-based accountability. For more information about Equality Health, visit www.equalityhealth.com or follow @EqualityHealth on Facebook, @EqualityHealth on Twitter, and @EqualityHealth on LinkedIn.

Media: Mardi Larson, Amendola for Equality Health, [email protected]

SOURCE Equality Health