Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative Launches Center for Accountable Care

The Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) has launched a Center for Accountable Care (CAC) to serve as a collaborative bridge between the patient-centered medical home model as promoted by PCPCC and the various accountable care organization (ACO) learning networks, collaboratives, and pilots in order to foster and align shared principles of increased accountability, performance measurement, and shared savings.  The new center is co-chaired by a cross constituency of leaders from both the primary care and accountable care organization organizations and affiliations.  The co-chairs are:

• Craig Samitt, MD, President and CEO, Dean Health and Chair, Group Practice Improvement Network
• Ted Epperly, MD, Past President, American Academy of Family Physicians
• Dana Gelb Safran, ScD,  Senior Vice President, Performance Measurement and Improvement, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
• Blair Childs, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs, Premier Healthcare Alliance

The CAC will work to ensure that HHS promotes and CMS assumes responsibility for ACO and PCMH provisions, and will develop and promote a set of policy and operational schema for creating and sustaining ACOs with a strong robust PCMH foundation. Key steps include identifying aligned performance goals, defining mutual skills and tools that facilitate change, establishing measurement and accountability mechanisms, and supporting leadership development. This center will ensure that the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) serves as the foundation for all ACOs, and that ACOs thrive as a result of strong robust PCMH support. The CAC is tasked with strengthening the liaison between the PCPCC and evolving ACO collaborative and stakeholders, as well as espousing strategies and positions that strengthen the notion of a strong PCMH foundation for evolving ACO guidelines and practices. This centers’ activities and initiatives may include, but not be not limited to, white papers, speaking engagements, webinars, facilitating joint presentations, convening of various pilots and demonstrations, collaborative input into federal and state policy and regulatory initiatives, specific draft policy recommendations, sponsor national webinars, case studies, and recommendations for ACO/PCMH aligned performance metrics.