AMGA Collaborative Focuses on Harnessing Analytics

AMGA, a trade association of multispecialty medical groups and integrated health systems, has created a new collaborative to help its members use data and advanced analytics to achieve success in preparing for risk-based contracts and to drive clinical and operational efficiency.

The collaborative addresses four domains: total cost of care; practice efficiency; high-risk patients; and clinical quality and safety. The participants will initially select one domain for a focused project in addition to receiving quarterly benchmarking across all four domains that will enable comparisons across participating groups. The collaborative’s analytics capabilities are powered by Optum. 

AMGA’s learning collaborative framework has been used in over a dozen collaboratives. For instance, in 2018 it formed a collaborative focused on helping provider organizations successfully implement Medicare’s new physician payment scheme, the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). More than 175,000 physicians practice in AMGA’s member organizations.

“Continuous improvement is AMGA members’ mantra, and the collaborative provides the roadmap to enable even the best to get better,” said Jerry Penso, M.D., M.B.A., AMGA president and CEO, in a prepared statement. “By partnering with Optum, we are able to pair healthcare’s strongest clinical and claims analytics platform with a proven collaborative learning framework to offer members a data-driven pathway for improved performance.” Participating organizations will engage in a series of structured activities designed to improve their performance. Collaborative activities will include in-person meetings, quarterly granular benchmark reports, webinars, access to a panel of expert advisors, and shared learning among AMGA organizations about highest performers’ best practices.