HJNO Mar/Apr 2023

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS  I  MAR / APR 2023 51 Chénier Reynolds-Montz, MBA, MS Vice President, School Health & Strategic Media Access Health Louisiana ment to advancing health equity, mod- erating costs, and improving outcomes for members. The 501(c)(3) organization currently operates as a Medicaid ACO on behalf of 23 FQHCs — and believes ACO REACH is an opportunity for the seven FQHCs under the Medicare contract to bring its highly effective model of care to a broader patient population. With the addition of AHL to its network for ACO REACH, C3 expects to serve over 1,400 Medicare patients in Louisiana and 10,000 Medicare patients in Massachu- setts through the program. “We see ACO REACH as a tremendous opportunity to offer our model of care to underserved Medicare beneficiaries — and build on the incredible successes we have had in the Massachusetts Medicaid ACO program,” said Christina Severin, CEO of C3. “We applaud CMMI for launching a model that centers health equity and enables FQHCs to meaningfully participate in downside financial risk with Medicare.” C3 unites FQHCs at scale to strength- en primary care, improve financial per- formance, and advance racial justice. The Boston-based ACO provides FQHCs with the tools and services needed to remain competitive in the ever-changing market landscape of value-based care — including value-based contracting, practice trans- formation, analytics, population health programs, quality, and risk adjustment ex- pertise and services. Federally Qualified Health Centers are an integral part of the U.S. healthcare sys- tem taking care of more than 30 million people annually according to the Health Resources and Services Administration. Its medical providers primarily service the nation’s underserved patient populations including those living in poverty or rural areas. “Our organization is proud to be the first FQHC in Louisiana selected to be a part of the Community Care Cooperative,” said Mark F. Keiser, President/CEO of AHL. “Like C3, we are committed to advancing health equity and reducing racial and so- cial disparities which contribute to the imbalance of quality health access in our nation. We hope that through our work and partnership, we can further the pri- orities of the Biden-Harris Administration and enhance patient care coordination through the REACH Model.” The newACO REACHModel is a priority of the Biden-Harris Administration. CMS plans to test the new ACO model to better inform the Medicare Shared Savings Pro- gram by making three changes to the cur- rent GPDC Model — advance health equity to bring the benefits of accountable care to underserved communities, promote provider leadership and governance, and protect beneficiaries and the model with more participant vetting, monitoring, and greater transparency. The first performance year of the rede- signed model begins Jan. 1, 2023, and runs for four performance years — PY2023 to PY2026. n Contributor: Abby Akoury, MPA, Chief of Staff Community Care Cooperative IN LATE 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) revealed its vision to transform the United States’ healthcare system to achieve more equi- table outcomes. CMS’ Accountable Care Organization (ACO) models are important for achieving its vision. While medical pro- viders take responsibility for the cost and quality of care for their patients in anACO, the model encourages providers to coordi- nate care across a variety of settings. CMS’ Innovation Centers redesigned the goals of its Global and Professional Direct Contracting Model (GPDC) with the inten- tion of identifying strong partners to work with to help the agency meet its mission. A Request for Applications (RFA) was so- licited to form a cohort of participants for the ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) Model. One ACO REACH contract awarded will direct- ly involve participation from Louisiana’s largest Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Networks — Access Health Louisi- ana (AHL). AHL is the first FQHC to work with the ACO Community Care Cooperative (C3) out of Boston, Massachusetts. C3 was awarded the ACO REACH contract from CMS. It is one of only 100 applicants in the country selected for this model. C3 is also the only ACO in Massachusetts founded and governed by FQHCs and exclusive- ly focused on advancing integrated and coordinated community-based care for Medicaid and Medicare members. ACO REACH is a new value-based care model that is aligned with C3’s commit-