Duke Health recently took another step in the transformation to value-based care by creating a Population Health Management Office (PHMO). This office, to be led by former North Carolina Medical Society President and Duke Health System Associate Chief Medical Officer Devdutta Sangvai, MD, MBA, will unify and centralize ambulatory care management and other services currently provided by DukeWELL and Northern Piedmont Community Care under a single Duke University Health System entity. The PHMO will also guide clinical care transformation initiatives as Duke Health transitions to value-based care.
The goals of the PHMO will be to educate providers on the state of value-based care; help them meet mandatory quality reporting requirements to payers; furnish analytics and performance data to providers and practices to improve patient care and proactively manage complex patients; and to provide care management services to help patients stay well during transitions between care settings and in between office visits.
Duke Health began its work in population health management in 1998 with the Northern Piedmont Community Care (NPCC) program for Medicaid beneficiaries. Over the last decade, they launched DukeWELL, the care management program for employees and their families, and Duke Connected Care, their accountable care organization. New federal policies under MACRA and growth in commercial value-based health insurance products will likely expedite the shift toward value-based payment over the next few years helping to prompt the creation of the PHMO to provide a tighter health system-consumer relationship and greater coordination of care.
