Cincinnati Aligning Forces for Quality (Cincinnati AF4Q) is led by the Health Collaborative. Established in 1992, the Health Collaborative is a diverse coalition of health care stakeholders representing the hospital, physician, employer, insurer, government, education and consumer sectors. Its mission is to stimulate significant and measurable improvement in the health status of the people in Greater Cincinnati through collaborative leadership.
The Health Collaborative used the Aligning Forces grant to promote the creation of patient-centered medical homes, beginning in 2009. The Collaborative worked with three payers to create a PCMH pilot project. Humana, UnitedHealthcare, and Anthem agreed to pay participating practices a per-member, per-month care management fee to help support the extra work that goes into providing patient-centered, coordinated care. The Collaborative hired TransforMED, a subsidiary of the American Academy of Family Physicians, to teach practices about the core principles of patient-centered medical homes and to guide them through practice change.
The entire Aligning Forces for Quality initiative is set to wrap up in 2015, so the Cincinnati alliance, like the other 15 regional Aligning Forces alliances, is now working on how to sustain its efforts for the long-term.
