Dr Rene Lerer Discusses Collaboration With ACOs

With the goal of accountable care organizations and population health being patient centric, it is important that stakeholders involved in the care of the patient develop partnerships to deliver high-quality care in a cost-effective manner, explained René Lere, MD, president of Florida Blue and GuideWell.

Transcript (slightly modified for readability)

What is the importance of teamwork and collaboration for the success of ACOs and population health?

There are so many players who impact the patient, and the goal of ACOs and population health is patient centric. Everything we do is about improving the healthcare of patients and the ACO is meant to be a vehicle that will do that in a more effective, higher quality, cost-effective manner. So who are the other stakeholders that are involved in the care of that patient? Those are the ones that you have to develop the partnerships with.

So first, between the payer and the ACOs—it's a matter of trust, it's a matter of identification of the value proposition the ACOs brings and allow them to effectuate that value proposition. On our side as the payer, it's what we can do well. So it's a partnership that identifies the skill sets of each organization that they can collaborate without duplication of effort. It's then the identification of other stakeholders, like specialists, ancillary providers, hospitals, and what the collaboration is there so there is an alignment of expectations, there's an alignment of resources, and there's an alignment of goals so that everyone ends up right place, can survive, has the financial and quality wherewithal to do the right thing and at the end of the day the patient benefits from all of them.