The ACO Show

Dr. Amol Navathe (@AmolNavathe), physician and health economist, speaks with Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) on the ACO Show. Dr. Navathe serves as the Co-Director of the Healthcare Transformation Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, a commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and the cofounder of Embedded Healthcare. He explains the role that behavioral economics can play in improving health care outcomes and lowering costs. They also discuss how the COVID-19 outbreak may motivate the U.S. health system to make permanent improvements.

Sanjay Doddamani (@DrDoddamani) is the Chief physician executive and Chief Operating Officer for Southwestern Health Resources, a clinically integrated network of over 5,000 academic, community, and independent primary care and specialty physicians in the Dallas area. He joins Josh (@DrJIsrael) to talk about the evolution of different financial models of health care during his career and how value-based care has helped prepare us for some of the challenges of Coronavirus

Emily Barson (@ebarson) is the Executive Director of United States of Care (@USofCare), a non-partisan organization working to ensure that every American has access to high-quality, affordable health care. She speaks with Josh (@DrJIsrael) about how COVID-19 has exposed the gaps in our health care system and why expanding access to care is more critical than ever. She explains that the nation may not be as politically divided as it seems when it comes to health care, and why we can look towards the future with a sense of optimism.

Ahmed Haque (@aehaque), Aledade’s SVP of Network Performance & Strategy, returns to the show to talk to Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) about what ACO performance means in relation to quality, utilization and cost. Ahmed covers how value-based contracts enable the best health outcomes for patients and sustainable revenue for physicians, and the impact of COVID-19 on Aledade’s goals and its potential to improve the way care is delivered going forward.

Dr. Mark Martindale, a primary care physician at Saline Med-Peds in Benton, Arkansas, talks with Josh (@DrIsrael) about how he changed his clinic to adapt to COVID-19. From setting up telemedicine and drive-through visits to keeping himself and his staff healthy, Dr. Martindale shares tips for how other practices can implement these changes.

On this episode of the ACO Show, we meet Mike Morgan (@mwmorgan), CEO of Updox, a telehealth platform. He joins Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) to talk about how Updox enables patients to connect with their health care providers by video and text messaging, and why this has become critically important during the COVID-19 epidemic. Aledade has just partnered with Updox to provide over 500+ partner physicians and their patients access to a telehealth platform.

Dr. Josh Lowentritt (@LowentrittMd), CEO of Louisiana Physicians speaks with Josh (@DrIsrael) about the toll COVID-19 cases are taking on New Orleans and the effects on providers’ safety, financial stability and personal well-being. It’s “as if the H1N1 flu outbreak came in on the Katrina recovery but there’s no Tamiflu. It’s a disaster with no treatment.”

Dr. Daren Anderson is the Director of ConferMED, a program that provides specialist consultations to primary care providers. He is also Director of the Weitzman Institute, an innovation center dedicated to improving primary care for underserved populations and the VP and Chief Quality Officer of Community Health Center, Inc. Dr. Anderson speaks with Josh (@DrJIsrael) about how these programs support care at community health centers, particularly during the COVID-19 epidemic.

On today’s episode, Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) speaks with Dr. Randy Walker and Angie Walker of the Walker Family Clinic in De Queen, Arkansas. They describe how they were able to expand staffing and operating hours at their independent primary care clinic to enable more patients to receive the care they need—and how this has prepared them for the COVID-19 outbreak they are facing right now. They also discuss how they were able to step in and serve their community’s health needs when the only critical access hospital in the area suddenly shut down.  To learn more about the Walker Clinic, please visit their website or Facebook page.

Travis Broome @Travis_Broome, Vice President of Policy at Aledade, discusses some of the steps CMS has taken to make care safer and more accessible for Medicare patients during the COVID-19 outbreak, including allowing widespread use of telehealth by medical providers, and how this has the potential to improve the way health care is delivered for years to come.