Leading the Shift Towards Value-Based Care with Atrius Health CEO Dr. Steve Strongwater

Atrius Health is way ahead of the curve when it comes to
risk-based reimbursement models. With 715 doctors providing care
to approximately 745,000 patients, Atrius Health has quickly
grown to become the largest independent physician group in the
northeast. But what really makes Atrius Health unique is that
nearly 80% of its revenue now derives from full-risk contracts in
which the organization is accountable for the quality, experience
and total cost of patient care.  With value-based care (VBC)
at its core, Atrius Health focuses on prevention, population
health management and creating full alignment with patients and
patient care needs. In this episode of Healthcare Is Hard: A
Podcast for Insiders, Keith Figlioli talks to Atrius Health CEO
Dr. Steven Strongwater about the challenges of moving to
risk-based reimbursement, the successes Atrius Health has seen
thus far, and next steps in the organization’s journey.

Topics they explore include:



The value of partnerships. Being a health system that is
not hospital-based provides Atrius Health with a number of
advantages in the way it partners with other organizations to
deliver the right care. For example, Atrius Health has
partnerships with numerous hospitals that include
interoperability of electronic medical records to ensure that
patient hand-off is extremely tight and coordinated. Among
other things, this ensures that there is no waste or
frustration as a result of repetitive testing while ultimately
lowering cost and improving care. 


Balancing the books with a high level of risk-based
payments. One of the main difference in the financials of a
value-based organization is that it requires significant
reserves to balance the difficult years, according to Dr.
Strongwater. For example, there are certain trend adjustments
that an organization can make from year-to-year, but there can
also be years where unexpected (and expensive) medical
breakthroughs, such as new drugs, are introduced. Dr.
Strongwater talks about the need for good contracts, decent
reserves, and situational awareness – from both an actuarial
and clinical perspective – in order to successfully navigate
these occurrences.


National trends between independent and owned practices.
Independent physician practices are essential to the future of
medicine and continue to drive transitions of change.
Organizations such as Atrius Health are the ones working harder
to avoid hospitalization and to always do what’s right for the
patient and the total cost of care. In the process, they’re
committed to addressing the country-wide epidemic of physician
burnout and figuring out what’s doable for not just physicians,
but nurses, nurse practitioners and others. They’re in a great
position to do so because of an ecosystem that truly connects
with patients – even in their home – and allows for
experimentation. But as Dr. Strongwater points out, size
matters and only large independent networks have the scale to
experiment and the depth of resources to make changes. 


The driving source of change towards VBC.
High-deductible health plans are deterring many Americans from
going to a provider for care, but growing consumer pressure is
what will ultimately push more organizations towards
value-based arrangements, such as the one underway at Atrius
Health. This offers the best of both worlds: helping a patient
make good choices for their overall health – through
preventative programs and otherwise – while driving down costs.
Dr. Strongwater reiterates that value-based care isn’t about
disrupting primary care, but that this model is one that should
be implemented through life’s full continuum of care, from
birth to death. 



To hear Dr. Strongwater talk about these topics and more, listen
to this episode of Healthcare is Hard: A Podcast for
Insiders.