Physicians’ forum addresses Affordable Care Act, Quality Partners

Christiana Care Health System hosted more than 70 community doctors in December for a special physicians’ forum on health care reform initiatives.

Leaders from Christiana Care and State of Delaware officials spoke about state-wide efforts to enroll Delawareans in the Health Insurance Marketplace and their partnerships on innovative health care initiatives to achieve medicine’s “Triple Aim” — better health and better care at lower cost.

Both the Delaware Academy of Medicine and the Delaware Academy of Family Physicians co-hosted the forum.

“Our community has a very long-standing history of excellence,” said Janice Nevin, M.D., chief medical officer of Christiana Care. “We are here to serve our neighbors and we want to do it in a way that is expert and caring and we know partnerships with our physician community are key for us to provide innovative and effective care for our patients.”

Community physicians heard about Christiana Care’s role implementing the Affordable Care Act, and many resources and opportunities to partner with the health system to care for our neighbors. The forum introduced Christiana Care’s marketplace guides, specially trained employees who help patients understand and enroll in the Health Insurance Marketplace and access health services. Christiana Care has partnered with the state through Choose Health Delaware to educate the public about the Health Insurance Marketplace. Christiana Care also is the only hospital-based health system in the region to hire marketplace guides to assist the uninsured. Marketplace guides are working throughout Christiana Care and visiting health fairs, churches, community centers and school-based health centers to educate Delawareans about how to enroll in the health insurance marketplace.

“Christiana Care is a terrific partner with us because of the way they take care of patients,” said Bettina Riveros, chair of the Delaware Health Care Commission, who gave an overview of the State Innovation Model during the forum. The state of Delaware won a special grant under the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, a special center created by the Affordable Care Act that provides $1 billion in grants to health institutions that are designing initiatives to achieve medicine’s Triple Aim.

Doctors also learned about Christiana Care Quality Partners, a clinically integrated network that brings together doctors, other health providers and Christiana Care to develop and sustain clinical initiatives to achieve the Triple Aim. Christiana Care’s nearly 11,000 employees and their dependents (a total of 18,000 covered lives) will be the first members of the Christiana Care Quality Partners network, which goes live July 2014. Alan Greenglass, M.D., medical director of The Medical Group of Christiana Care, is CEO of Christiana Care Quality Partners. Douglas Azar is executive director of Christiana Care Quality Partners.

“We want to be leading health care transformation in Delaware,” Dr. Greenglass said. “We want to create an infrastructure and work together with our community physicians in Delaware to achieve the Triple Aim.”

Tim Gibbs, executive director of the Delaware Academy of Medicine, welcomed physicians to the forum.

It also featured a Q&A session in which community doctors could ask questions about how the Affordable Care Act will impact their patients and their practices. Panelists during the forum included Dr. Nevin, Dr. Greenglass, Azar, Riveros, Kathy Cannatelli, director of Community Health & Preventive Medicine; Lauren Pendergast, program coordinator for Christiana Care’s Marketplace Guides; and Michelle Amadio, director of the state’s health insurance marketplace. The forum was moderated by Omar Khan, M.D., associate vice chair, Department of Family and Community Medicine, and medical director for the Eugene duPont Preventive Medicine & Rehabilitation Institute & Center for Community Health.

Photo gallery: Physician forum

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