Sutter Health's Palo Alto Medical Foundation and UnitedHealthcare Collaborate to Improve Patient Care in Northern California
April 29 2015 - 11:30AM
Business Wire
- More than 63,000 UnitedHealthcare
employer-sponsored health plan participants in Northern California
will benefit from improved care coordination and enhanced health
services
Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) and UnitedHealthcare have
launched an accountable care organization (ACO) to improve how
patient care is coordinated and delivered for more than 63,000
Northern California residents enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s
employer-sponsored health plans.
The ACO will help shift California’s health care system to one
that rewards quality and value instead of the volume of procedures
performed. Specifically, the ACO will transition PAMF from a
fee-for-service compensation model to a value-based approach in
which the organization is rewarded for achieving certain
evidence-based measures – such as hospital readmission rates,
disease management and prevention, and patient safety – as well as
total cost savings.
PAMF and UnitedHealthcare’s partnership is one of 250 new
accountable care programs UnitedHealthcare has committed to in 2015
as it engages in deeper, more collaborative relationships with
physicians and hospitals across the country.
PAMF is part of Sutter Health, a family of not-for-profit
hospitals and physician organizations that share resources and
expertise to advance health care quality throughout Northern
California. PAMF has approximately 50 locations in Alameda, Contra
Costa, San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.
“The Sutter Health network of care providers places a high value
on coordinating care,” said Jeffrey Burnich, M.D., senior vice
president of Medical and Market Networks at Sutter Health. “We’re
excited about the potential for this new partnership to improve
patient care.”
Through this collaboration, UnitedHealthcare will complement
PAMF’s own data by providing additional support to manage overall
population health, including technology and information that will
help the group’s more than 500 primary care physicians take
specific actions that improve quality and lower costs. Actionable
data may include patient profiles, specific HEDIS performance
measures on care and service, and real-time notification of ER and
inpatient admissions. Patient navigators may also be used to
support community-based care coordination, such as helping with
transition plans after an individual is discharged from the
hospital. This approach will enable physicians to identify best
practices for overall patient wellness and disease management.
“We have long partnered with UnitedHealthcare to apply our
expertise in health care innovation and care coordination to
improve the health of our patients,” said PAMF CEO Richard Slavin,
M.D. “Together, we can continue to achieve better health outcomes
and improve patient satisfaction, while reducing the overall cost
of care.”
UnitedHealthcare employer-sponsored plan participants who
currently receive care from PAMF-affiliated care providers will not
have to do anything differently to benefit from this new
relationship.
“UnitedHealthcare is building more collaborative relationships
with the physicians caring for our plan participants so we can help
enhance their health in meaningful ways,” said Brandon Cuevas, CEO,
UnitedHealthcare of California. “Our collaboration with Palo Alto
Medical Foundation is the latest in a series of value-based
initiatives we’re launching in California that will help connect
the people we collectively serve to the right, most effective care,
place a greater focus on the quality of their care, and compensate
care providers for improving patients’ health.”
Care providers nationwide are showing strong interest in a shift
to value-based care. UnitedHealthcare’s total payments to
physicians and hospitals that are tied to value-based arrangements
have nearly tripled in the last three years to $38 billion. By the
end of 2018, UnitedHealthcare expects that figure to reach $65
billion.
UnitedHealthcare has more than 520 active accountable care
programs today. For more information about UnitedHealthcare’s full
spectrum of value-based initiatives, visit
www.AccountableCareAnswers.com.
UnitedHealthcare serves more than 3.2 million people in
California with a care provider network of more than 320 hospitals
and 60,000 physicians statewide.
About Palo Alto Medical
FoundationThe Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF)
for Health Care, Research and Education, is part of
the Sutter Health network of care. Founded in 1930, PAMF is
a not-for-profit health care organization that is a pioneer in the
multispecialty group practice of medicine, health innovation and
patient-centered care. PAMF's more than 1,200 affiliated physicians
and 5,400 employees serve nearly 850,000 patients at its medical
centers and clinics in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, Santa
Clara and Santa Cruz counties.
About
UnitedHealthcareUnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping
people nationwide live healthier lives by simplifying the
healthcare experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs,
and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. The
company offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for
individuals, employers, military service members, retirees and
their families, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and
contracts directly with more than 850,000 physicians and care
professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities
nationwide. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified Fortune 50 health and
well-being company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at
www.uhc.com or follow @myUHC on Twitter.
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Sutter Health/Palo Alto Medical FoundationJill Antonides,
650-691-6240antonij1@sutterhealth.orgorUnitedHealthcareLynne
High, 952-979-5861Lynne_M_High@uhc.com
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