The Brookings Institute Features the Institute in an Article about Accountable Care Organizations

The Up Front blog from the Brookings Institute recently featured FamilyHealthACO, a new “accountable care organization” founded by the Institute and two other federally qualified health centers, Open Door Family Medical Center and Hudson River HealthCare.The article includes commentary from the Institute’s President & CEO Dr. Neil Calman.

FamilyHealth ACO was designated a Medicare Accountable Care Organization in January 2014. Unlike most ACOs (a group of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, who come together to give coordinated high quality care to their Medicare patients), FamilyHealth ACO is led by these three federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), who will collaborate with hospitals, specialists and other providers to improve health care quality for Medicare patients.

In the article, Dr. Calman discusses the importance of using the Institute’s long-established health technology and the ACO payment model, which incentivizes quality, to provide patients with the best possible care. He sees FamilyHealth ACO as a chance to experiment and learn how FQHCs can best benefit from participating in an ACO. “We are using this as an opportunity to bring our three organizations together and learn best practices.”