The ACO Show

Edo Banach (@EdoBanach) is the President and CEO of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. On this week’s episode, he explains Medicare's hospice benefit, the difference between hospice and palliative care, and how accountable care organizations can better coordinate with these services.

Geoff Huggins (@GeoffHuggins) is the Director of NES Digital Service (NDS) in Scotland. NDS was established by the Scottish Government in 2018 to standardize electronic health records across the country to improve health outcomes.  Geoff shares some of the lessons he has learned along the way about engaging citizens, clinicians, and government organizations in health care transformation.

All Accountable Care Organizations have a patient representative on their board of managers. John Sickler, a retired businessman, serves as the patient representative on the board of managers for the Freedom ACO, an Aledade ACO in suburban Philadelphia. He joins Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) to discuss his role on the board and how he helps the ACO promote evidence-based medicine and...

Professor George Crooks (@CrooksGeorge) is the CEO of the Digital Health and Care Institute, Scotland’s national innovation center for digital health care. On this week’s episode, he shares his vision of integrating Scotland’s fragmented health data platforms in order to enable health care providers to deliver higher quality care and empower individuals to take charge of their own health data. He...

Jim Manzi is co-founder of Foundry.ai, a technology studio that creates artificial intelligence software companies, and is a member of Aledade’s board. He joins Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) to help us understand how machine learning, scientific methodology and experimentation can be used to help guide corporate business decisions.

Annalyn Whitt (@ALWhitt) is a Practice Transformation Specialist in the Aledade Mississippi ACO. In this week’s episode, she describes the origins and evolution of “Home for the Holidays,” a successful home-grown initiative that helps keep patients with preventable illnesses out of the emergency room and the hospital during the holiday season.

On this episode of the ACO Show, Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) spoke to Melissa Dunford (@MelissaDunford6) and Kristy McGlothin (@kristymcglothin), two of Aledade's Practice Transformation Specialists (PTS). As the Aledade team members who spend the most time out in the field with our partner primary care practices, they each share their unique experiences helping practices understand...

Brady Richards started out as a junior engineer working on electronic health records 18 years ago, and today he serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Aledade, leading a growing team of engineers across the U.S. He joined the ACO Show to share what he has learned from a career of developing technologies that help physicians manage multiple aspects of their practices and why he continues to find...

Dr. Juan Duran and Lucia Zegarra joined the ACO Show this week during Hispanic Heritage Month to share their experiences working in the U.S. health care system. Juan is a third-year resident in pediatric neurology at Columbia University, and Lucia is the Director of Community Health Programs at Community Health and Empowerment through Education and Research (CHEER). They discussed the unique barri...

Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean), former Governor of Vermont, joins Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) for this week’s episode. As a physician, governor, presidential candidate, and Chair of the Democratic National Committee, he has been at the forefront of many of the health care debates of the past 30 years. On this episode, he shares his thoughts on universal health care coverage, medical m...

Elisabeth Rosenthal (@RosenthalHealth) kicks off Season 2 of The ACO Show with Josh Israel (@DrJIsrael) and Joe Shonkwiler (@JoeShonkwiler). She points out some of the bigger flaws in our health care system and discusses what physicians and private companies can do to bring more humanity back to the practice of medicine. Dr. Rosenthal is the Editor-in-Chief of Kaiser Health News and the author of...

Dan Bowles (@DBowles1607), SVP of Growth & Network Operations at Aledade, joins Josh (@DrIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) on the The ACO Show Season 1 Finale to discuss network expansion of Accountable Care Organizations through partnerships with independent physician practices. Aledade sets the framework to help these practices participate in value-based care and sustain independence in the long...

Two weeks ago, several primary care physicians traveled from their communities to Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. They spent an entire day meeting with policymakers and helping them understand what it's like to be in a physician-led ACO. On this episode, Farzad Mostashari (@Farzad_MD), CEO of Aledade, and Travis Broome (@Travis_Broome), Vice President of Policy at Aledade, sit down with Dr. Karl S...

Josh (@DrIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) had the opportunity to speak with Erica Ashe, a Resident Assistant at the University of Michigan in hematology and oncology, and Dr. Phil Rogers (@PhilRodgersMD), a Family Physician at the University of Michigan, working in their Comprehensive Gender Services program. Erica is one of Dr. Rogers' patients and has been through the transgender process herself...

Dr. Karen L. Smith ( @KLSmithMD ) is a national leader in primary care and was named the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Family Physician of the Year in 2017.  She is also an independent primary care physician and the medical director of Aledade’s North Carolina ACO. Joe ( @JoeShonkwiler ) speaks with Dr. Smith about what the Declaration of Independence can teach us about the current...

Allison Brennan is the Senior Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOs), a nonprofit organization focused on fostering the growth of the ACO model. On this week’s podcast, she sits down with Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) to discuss how to improve ACO policy in order to ensure the sustainability of the model and advance...

To celebrate Aledade’s 5th birthday, Dr. Mark McClellan, joins Farzad Mostashari (@Farzad_MD), Josh (@DrIsrael), and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) to discuss the past and present and Accountable Care Organizations. Dr. McClellan is a former commissioner for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and played key roles in the creation of ACO...

Nick Bartz, Vice President of Business Intelligence at Aledade, joins the ACO Show this week with Josh (@DrIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler). The Business Intelligence team at Aledade helps guide the vision, design and development of a suite of managerial tools to that will support Aledade’s 30+ value-based care contracts across 24 states. Our rapidly expanding national network includes more than 4...

Rachel Roubein (@rachel_roubein) is a healthcare reporter for POLITICO Pro where she focuses on doctors and hospitals. She previously covered healthcare for The Hill and National Journal . Rachel joins Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) to discuss the ongoing political debate about the direction of the American healthcare system and trends in the politics and policy impacting healthcare pr...

Charlie Colligan joins Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) on this week's episode to discuss his journey to becoming Chief Financial Officer of Aledade and the complexities of financing a company that enables accountable care organizations to provide better patient care. Charlie has leveraged his unique background in government programs and technology to set Aledade and its partner practice...

Dr. Lowentritt (@LowentrittMd) joins Dr. Josh Israel (@DrIsrael) this week to discuss what it's like being a specialist in a rescue ACO at Internal Medicine Specialists. 

On this week’s podcast, Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) welcome Sean Cavanaugh (@dc_cavanaugh) and Travis Broome (@Travis_Broome) back to the show to discuss the recent announcement of several primary care-focused initiatives : Primary Care First & Direct Contracting . Sean, Aledade’s Chief Administration Officer, and Travis, Aledade’s Vice President of Policy, share how these programs...

Megan Slaga, Aledade's Director of Pharmacy, discusses high-value medication initiatives in accountable care organizations with Josh (@DrIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler). She explains why Part D (prescription drug spending) isn't considered part of regular Medicare/Medicaid spend in ACOs and shares her insights on finding high-value alternative medications and promoting medication adherence. 

On this week’s podcast, Josh (@DrJIsrael) and Joe (@JoeShonkwiler) sit down with several guests who participated in the National Association of ACOs (NAACOs) conference, which was held in Baltimore from April 24 to 26. Annette DuBard (@AnnetteDuBard), Vice President of Clinical Strategy, recaps the panel she participated in, speaking about quality measures and how they can contribute towards the g...

At Aledade, Practice Transformation Specialists (PTS) work closely with providers to support them as they transition to value-based care. Heidi Aubertin (@HeidiAubertin), a Senior PTS of the Freedom ACO in Philadelphia, comes to the show to talk to Josh (@DrJIsrael) about what she does on a daily basis to improve the workflow of her practices, encouraging small tweaks that reap large benefits. She...