EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Nov. 17, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthCare Partners, a division of DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA) and a leading independent medical group in the United States, today announced it has achieved $1.6 million in savings from participation in the Enhanced Personal Health Care program (EPHC), a commercial Accountable Care Organization (ACO) formed by Anthem Blue Cross (Anthem). Savings were achieved from July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015.

This is the third consecutive year the companies have jointly achieved savings through Anthem's ACO programs. In addition to the EPHC, HealthCare Partners participates in a Medicare ACO and other commercial ACO arrangements.

The EPHC program focuses on fully insured PPO members with two or more chronic conditions, which research shows can most effectively be helped through coordinated care efforts. While these members can see physicians outside of the ACO, HealthCare Partners offers access to a personalized health team that includes a doctor and access to its ACO Unit.

"Achieving savings again this year validates that we are a leader in value-based care," said Chan Chuang, MD, chief medical officer, HealthCare Partners California. "The HealthCare Partners coordinated care model focuses on managing utilization and meeting high quality thresholds. By transferring these best practices to our PPO patients, we are able to better care for them while reducing the financial burden."

The HealthCare Partners ACO Unit is a dedicated staff of care managers and care coordinators who conduct health risk assessments, identify hospitalized ACO patients, coordinate transitions of care, and ensure patient care and healthcare resources are accessible. HealthCare Partners also extends medical management programs to EPHC program patients, such as disease management, specialized high risk programs, home care and palliative care programs.

"By keeping patients healthy and thus lowering admission rates, among other achievements, HealthCare Partners is also able to lower patients' total out-of-pocket healthcare costs," added Chuang.

The $1.6 million savings were driven by meeting 100% of the quality thresholds set by Anthem, and exceeded the Medical Cost Target (MCT) benchmark. Specifically, together HealthCare Partners was able to lower admission rates, direct patients to outpatient surgery centers more, and prescribe appropriate medications while increasing generic drug dispensing rates.

Some of the notable quality scores achieved by HealthCare Partners in the EPHC program, as measured against the HEDIS benchmarks are listed below:

About HealthCare Partners, a DaVita Medical Group
HealthCare Partners is a division of DaVita Inc., a Fortune 500® company that, through its operating divisions, provides a variety of health care services to patient populations throughout the United States and abroad. HealthCare Partners manages and operates medical groups and affiliated physician networks in California, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida, Colorado and Washington in its pursuit to deliver excellent-quality health care in a dignified and compassionate manner. As of September 30, HealthCare Partners provided integrated care management for approximately 750,000 patients. For more information, please visit HealthCarePartners.com. 

Contact Information 
Media:
David Tauchen - 303-876-2802
DTauchen@healthcarepartners.com

SOURCE HealthCare Partners