Accountable Care: Advancing the Vision

Ninety-six representatives from the eight family medicine residency programs affiliated with Michigan State University's Department of Family Medicine gathered for the Network's annual retreat to consider “Accountable Care: Advancing the Vision.” The conference was Friday, September 21, 2012, in East Lansing, hosted by Sparrow/MSUFamily Medicine Residency of Lansing.

Allan Ramsay, MD, of The Green Mountain Care Board of Vermont gave the keynote address, “Preparing the Health Care Workforce for Accountable Care.”

Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) are provider-based organizations that take responsibility for meeting the healthcare needs of a defined population with the goal of improving health, patient experiences, and reducing per capita costs. The part of the definition relating to patient populations represents a major shift in practice orientation, and is alien to a physician’s training and day-to-day focus. The ability to demonstrate patient-centeredness will be critical. It is complementary to ACO and a precursor to the recommended primary-care centered ACO. Family medicine needs to know what an ACO is, how to recognize one with a likelihood of success, the professional risks involved and be a catalyst for this transformative change. Residency training programs will need to address both the financial and cultural barriers to the implementation of the new care and payment models in order to train future family physicians and meet the next GME Accreditation Guidelines.

A panel discussion on “Statewide Stories on Organizing and Implementing Systems of Care,” was facilitated by William C. Wadland, MD, MS, with Dr. Ramsay as responder (see sidebar for links to presentation slides). Panelists were:

  • David Blair, MD, Advantage Health-Trinity/St. Mary PHO, MiPCT
  • Tom Noren, MD, Senior Vice-President-Chief Medical Officer- Marquette General Health System
  • Trissa Torres, MD, Director of HealthWorks- Genesys Health System- “Pioneer ACO” HHS
  • Peter Graham, MD, VP Sparrow Medical Group, Sparrow Health System
  • Jean Malouin, MD, MPH, Department of Family Medicine, University of Michigan, lead for state of Michigan federally funded primary care transformation demonstration project

 

Afternoon addresses were by Kelly Clark, Munson Family Medicine Residency, “Bringing the Patient Centered Medical Home to Family Residency Training: A Longitudinal Curriculum,” and Rebecca Malouin, MSU Department of Family Medicine, “2012 Family Medicine Residency Network PCAT: Survey to Assess the Medical Homeness of Network Practices.”

For information, contact Marolee Neuberger at marolee.neuberger@hc.msu.edu.