Nearly 100 people attended the NC Population Health Collaborative, formerly known as the ACO Collaborative, just prior to the beginning of the M3 Conference in Greensboro last Thursday, Sept. 15. The collaborative has grown from an intimate meeting of a few fledgling ACOs meeting at ACOs around the state and the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) to exchange best practices and share the challenges they face as a new model of care. Now the group has grown to fill a ballroom at the Grandover resort in Greensboro and includes organizations that provide services to the ACOs themselves.
The theme for this meeting was population health – part of the Triple Aim, which is at the core of any ACO.
Former North Carolina Medical Society President and Executive Director of Duke Connected Care Dev Sangvai, MD and Bob Gianforcaro, MD, of the UNC Health Alliance spoke about each of their organization’s population health efforts, the challenges associated with the move to a value-based health care models and how to align the incentives to get everyone on board for the changes.
“Sharing information is key to population health,” Dr. Gianforcaro said, adding that “it is an expense, not a source of income. You need senior leadership on board with any population health initiatives.”
On the necessity of sharing information for ACOs, Darryl Meeks, executive director of the NC Health Information Exchange Authority (NCHIEA) spoke to the Collaborative about the new NC HIE.
“This is all about transparency and data,” he said, inviting input from those present on what would be most useful to them in an HIE. North Carolina is the only state in US with state-run HIE, as authorized by the General Assembly last year. The NCHIEA is partnering with SAS and Orion Health, and has an advisory board, which includes physicians, as they are gearing up to fully implement the exchange by Feb. 1, 2018, when all Medicaid providers in the state must be connected to the NCHIE.
Meeks described the goal of the NCHIE to provide “seamless connections between every type of practice. We’re not going to build it and hope you come. We’re working to get input from providers on what is needed,” he said.
Warren Newton, MD, also spoke to the group about building the foundation for future health care workforce needs in the state.
If you would like more information about the NC Population Health Collaborative, please contact Melanie Phelps at [email protected].
