Aetna has established an accountable care organization with Duke Health in Durham, N.C., and WakeMed Health & Hospitals in Raleigh, N.C.
Aetna Whole Health-Duke Health & WakeMed will offer employers and individuals in 12 central North Carolina counties healthcare services “designed to improve quality, efficiency and the patient experience, and to control costs,” according to a news release.
The ACO will foster collaboration between physicians at Duke Health and WakeMed hospitals and outpatient facilities. It will also include WakeMed Key Community Care, the system's ACO that includes 370 primary-care providers and 750 specialty-care providers.
Duke Health includes Duke University Health System and Duke University Schools of Medicine and Nursing. WakeMed is a three-hospital system with nearly 8,500 employees. Aetna provides health plans to 550,000 people in North Carolina. The ACO will be offered to fully insured and to self-funded employers, which allows more companies “to experience the benefits generated from better coordinated care and population health management.”
The ACO is intended to enhance care coordination between doctors and other provides; improve patient experience; enhance use of technology; lower overall out-of-pockets costs for members and result in better health outcomes for patients.
Projected cost savings for members were not disclosed.
Aetna recently partnered with St. John Health System's ACO in Tulsa, Okla. It includes 500 primary care physicians.
About 6.2 million Aetna members receive care from doctors focused on value-based care initiatives. Approximately 40% of Aetna claims are for doctors and providers that practice a value-based care approach. The health plan wants to increase that percentage to 75% by 2020.
