OC’s Monarch HealthCare ACO Model Gets High Marks for First Year

The Pioneer Model program’s “Triple Aim” goal seeks to improve quality of care as well as the health of a population and to cut cost of care, which aligns with Monarch’s long-standing values, he said.

In the area of quality performance, Monarch scored highest in physician communication with the patient and patient overall satisfaction with their physician. It was also a top performer in several care coordination and patient safety metrics.

Monarch cut medical costs by 5.4% in 2012 from its baseline, which looks at the last three years of medical expenses, while national medical costs grew by 1.1% for a comparable population, he said.

“This favorable expense trend was driven primarily by reductions in hospital admissions and skilled nursing facilities utilization and unit costs,” LeClair noted.

But many challenges remain.

Among the biggest challenge is to get physicians to engage with office staff and to provide incentives for the office staff to identify ACO patients, LeClair noted.