UnitedHealthcare and Arizona Care Network Launch ACO

Arizona Care Network (ACN) and UnitedHealthcare have launched an accountable care organization (ACO), with nearly 15,000 Phoenix-area residents enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s employer-sponsored health plans.

Arizona Care Network, formed through collaboration among Dignity Health, Abrazo Health and other local care providers, is a physician-led and -governed clinically integrated network of more than 2,300 physicians, nine hospitals and numerous health care partners statewide.

The ACO collaboration will help Arizona Care Network’s primary care physicians, hospitals and home health care providers improve transitions of care for patients and facilitate better communication with all who are involved in a patient’s treatment, according to a statement from ACN. Primary care physicians in the ACO will receive regular patient updates, enabling them to monitor all of the care each patient is receiving, and to maintain all clinical information about each patient in a secure patient registry.

Arizona Care Network coordinates evidence-based care, ensuring that the primary care physicians, specialists and facilities are aligned with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s (IHI’s) “Triple Aim” objective: increase patient satisfaction, improve the health of the population and reduce the cost of health care.

This is UnitedHealthcare’s second ACO in Arizona. Last year, the company launched an ACO with Arizona Connected Care aimed at Tucson residents enrolled in UnitedHealthcare’s employer-sponsored health plans.