Aledade, a company that works with primary care practices on more than 140 value-based contracts, has purchased Iris Healthcare, a provider of advanced care planning solutions.
The Bethesda, Md.-based Aledade said its first acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, would augment the support that it delivers to its nationwide network of more than 1,000 independent primary care practices and health centers.
Iris Healthcare’s model of advanced care planning is designed to ensure that people receive medical care consistent with their values, goals, and preferences during serious and chronic illness by formally documenting those wishes in an advance directive.
As part of the transaction, Iris Healthcare will become a part of Aledade Care Solutions, the company’s new health services unit, which will work to give Aledade practices new ways to improve patient outcomes and lower costs by integrating patient care solutions.
Aledade noted that the acquisition and the establishment of a new health services arm come on the heels of significant growth for the company. The network of practices and health centers working with Aledade now spans 37 states and has grown by 20 percent over the last year. Aledade’s value-based care contracts collectively cover more than 1.7 million patients and manage roughly $17 billion in total healthcare spending through 98 Medicare and 47 other value-based contracts. The privately held company said it is profitable for the second year in a row, with gross revenue of more than $300 million in 2021. It believes that it is currently on the path to more than double that by 2023.
"Today, more than 1.7 million patients are getting better primary care from their own family physicians – more engaged, more accessible, and more empowered primary care,” said Farzad Mostashari, M.D., CEO and co-founder of Aledade, in a statement. “We've seen the results, in reduced emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and lives saved, when it's more profitable to prevent a stroke than to treat it. But there is more that we can do. With Aledade Care Solutions, we can now bring the first of a series of additional services that are most valuable to patients and families, and also more profitable, when delivered in a value-based world through referrals by primary care clinicians whom patients trust. Empowering and enabling primary care means extending what primary care practices can do, and we’re excited to begin this new chapter by welcoming Iris Healthcare to the Aledade team.”