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More than 10 years have passed since Dana Lynch, a nurse practitioner (NP), took a daring career leap that put her on the path to becoming a corporate healthcare leader.

When I was welcomed into the medical community at the White Coat Ceremony on my first day of orientation at the New York University School of Medicine, a single piece of advice stood out and I remember it to this day: always listen to the nurses! It was some of the most sound professional guidance I’ve ever received, and I’ve followed it my entire career.

The month of May has historically celebrated nurses and their collective commitment to their patients and their profession. This year, rather than one week culminating on the May 12 birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing, nurses week has expanded to National Nurses Month.

It's no secret that primary care providers are stretched increasingly thin.  They're being asked to do more - see more patients, manage more conditions, do more charting - all with limited resources and for less money.  The constant pressures of reaching RVU goals by churning through more patients weighs continuously on both provider and patient satisfaction, and as a result, the norm is too often an abrupt ten-minute patient visit.  

Signify Health, a leader in accountable care and the 340B drug discount program, has announced its new success-based pricing model for 2022. ACOs have faced tremendous uncertainties throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and Signify Health is supporting providers by eliminating all service fees and start-up costs to join its ACO program. By freeing providers from these costs and allowing them to collect a percentage of shared savings earned, Signify is positioning providers to better deliver high-value care. Signify Health works with providers to minimize their downside financial risk in the Medicare Shared Savings Program.

Signify Health’s success-based pricing model also extends to its 340B service line, where Signify Health helps ACO participants maximize their use of the 340B drug discount program with new value-based contract data and workflows. The service line can potentially enable ACO participants to earn more 340B discounts while helping hospitals and physicians expand primary care services for underserved patients with minimal risk.

"As Medicare and other payors are asking healthcare providers to take financial risk related to patient outcomes, it is critical that accountable care enablers not only provide the guidance, technology, and methodologies necessary for success, but also walk the walk, in terms of sharing financial risk,” said Rachelle Schultz, President & CEO of Winona Health. “Signify Health is that enabling partner. Their success-based pricing and shared risk model ensure they're invested in our organization's success. That is the type of confidence and assurance we need.”

Signify Health’s ACO participants consistently rank among the national leaders in performance measures. In 2019 and 2020, all Signify Health collaborative ACO participants earned near-perfect Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) scores, and in 2020, 100% of provider participants in the collaborative ACO model received shared savings. These strong results, combined with Signify Health ACOs actively managing the care of more than 500,000 Medicare beneficiaries, have led to the company’s management of one of the largest and most successful accountable care organizations in the nation.

Signify Health pioneered its collaborative ACO model based on statistical analyses that demonstrated the importance of having a viable number of beneficiaries being managed. Having more beneficiaries in an ACO results in less random variation, creating more stable and predictable financial results – results linked to actual improvements in care rather than the “luck of the draw”. In Signify Health-supported ACOs, independent providers band together to build a model that positions them to mitigate risk, achieve collective success, and improve patient outcomes. Providers, who would otherwise be too small to make total costs of care risk viable on their own, maintain their independence in a collaborative ACO, while benefiting from safety in numbers.

"A successful ACO requires joining forces with other healthcare systems, making investments in systems and staff, and adopting strong population health management. It can be difficult for providers to effectively line the pieces up, especially as the COVID public health emergency continues,” said Tim Gronniger, Chief Value-Based Solutions Officer for Signify Health. “Our model lowers the barrier to ACO participation while providing a sustainable path forward to earn savings and lower total costs.”