Aledade Opens a Policy Institute to Advocate for Policy Change
On Jan. 16, the leaders of the Bethesda, Md.-based Aledade, a national physician enablement company, announced the creation of a policy institute, called the Aledade Policy Institute. A press release posted to the organization’s website began thus: “To strengthen primary care and advance value-based care in the United States, Aledade, the nation’s largest network of independent primary care, announced its launch today of the Aledade Policy Institute.”
The Aledade leaders noted that “The Aledade Policy Institute builds on the company’s success fostering collaboration and dialogue with regulators, legislators and stakeholders on value-based care. As a Public Benefit Corporation, Aledade prioritizes efforts that advance social good, and not just business objectives, as part of its mission. The Institute will play an important role in this effort by sharing insights to enrich health care policy discussions at a pivotal time for state and federal leaders.”
“The Aledade Policy Institute will be a powerful voice for advancing primary care and value-based care at this important time in our nation’s history,” Farzad Mostashari, M.D., co-founder and CEO of Aledade, said in a statement contained in the press release. “Sensible policy can materially improve the health outcomes of individuals and communities and the clinicians that serve them. Through this Institute, we are committed to supporting the needs and lifting up the voices of primary care practitioners and advancing policies that encourage even more widespread adoption of value-based care.”
The press release noted that the Policy Institute “will focus on advancing policies across four key areas:
• Strengthening value-based care models to improve outcomes and reduce costs.
• Enhancing payment and regulatory systems to ensure sustainable primary care, including reducing the administrative burden these practices and health centers face.
• Promoting choice and competition to foster innovation in the U.S. health system.
• Driving interoperability to unlock the potential of health data.”
And it noted that the Policy Institute’s advisory council will include “nationally recognized health policy experts Michael Chernew, Ceci Connolly, Bob Kocher, Avik Roy and others, will develop and share ideas to advance value-based care and primary care investment at both the federal and state levels. The council will review policy proposals and provide feedback based on data-driven evidence and alignment with public good. The Institute will be led by Aledade’s Chief Policy Officer Sean Cavanaugh, the former Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) deputy administrator and director of Medicare, and include a team of other federal and state policy experts.”
“The Aledade Policy Institute will deliver ideas that draw on evidence and lessons learned from a decade of working with the largest network of independent primary care in the country,” Cavanaugh said. “This will enable us to more compellingly share evidence-based recommendations that can advance value-based primary care that meets the unique needs of urban, suburban and rural geographies, community health centers and solo and small practices, creating a health care system that is good for patients and lowers costs.”
Among the areas of focus for the Policy Institute will be advocacy around the benchmarking methodology in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), the largest value-based care program managed by CMS, and which yielded more than $2.1 billion in net savings in 2023. The Policy Institute, the press release noted, will be focusing on benchmarking methodology; primary care reimbursement relief for independent physicians adversely impacted by the Change Healthcare cyberattack; state-level efforts to remove prior authorization administrative burdens.
More information about the Aledade Policy Institute can be found here.
