Aledade, Horizon BCBS N.J., Form Value-Based Care Partnership

The Bethesda, Md.-based accountable care organization (ACO) company Aledade, Inc. and Horizon Healthcare Services Inc., New Jersey’s oldest and largest health insurer, have announced a new value-based care collaboration.

The goal of the partnership, officials of both organizations noted, is to deliver high-quality, coordinated care to more than 20,000 of Horizon’s commercially-insured and Medicare Advantage patients. In this arrangement, practices in Aledade’s New Jersey ACO and their Horizon patients will benefit from a model that rewards doctors for improving quality of care and patient health outcomes, while lowering costs, officials said.

Last month, Aledade, a company started by former National Coordinator for Health IT, Farzad Mostashari, M.D., announced that it would be forming a new ACO in New Jersey under a physician-led model. Now, under Aledade’s first commercial contract in the state, practices in Aledade’s New Jersey ACO across central and northern New Jersey will take on accountability for the total healthcare experience of Horizon members who see them.

Aledade specifically offers a new model of primary care by partnering with physicians to build and lead ACOs that “allow doctors to stay independent, practice medicine like they’ve always wanted to, and thrive financially by keeping people healthy,” officials said. In this partnership, Horizon patients get to keep their primary care doctor while seeing the results of Aledade ACO practices’ focus on care coordination, population health management, and preventive care.

“Our new agreement with Horizon is an exciting opportunity to advance value-based care and to improve the health of thousands of New Jersey patients,” Dan Bowles, vice president of provider networks at Aledade, said in a statement. “In collaboration with local primary care practices, our innovative physician-led model will drive improvements in quality and patient outcomes through more personalized, coordinated care.”