CareFirst joins with Aledade to reduce health care costs

CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield and Aledade Inc., a Bethesda-based public benefit corporation, Tuesday announced the formation of a strategic alliance, connecting CareFirst member physicians with Aledade’s tools and resources that improve the efficiency and effectiveness of independent primary-care physicians.

Aledade helps independent primary care physicians improve patient health, helps independent practices thrive, and reduces health care costs across the entire system.

This new agreement will enable physician practices in CareFirst’s network to access the services of Aledade’s team of specialists, including onsite business support for physician practices, a technology platform that works with more than one hundred different EHRs and health care regulatory and policy expertise.

Aledade also helps empower participating practices to focus on patient access and preventive care. To date, the company has helped save more than $1.2 billion across the health care system through more preventive care — improving health by helping patients avoid tens of thousands of unnecessary hospitalizations and visits to the emergency department.

Practices led by physicians can help their patients avoid hospitalizations at higher rates. A 2019 analysis of Medicare data showed that, on average, physician-led Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) produced almost seven times the amount of savings per beneficiary than hospital-led ACOs.

Aledade is the largest independent primary care network in the country, helping independent practices, health centers and clinics deliver better care to its patients and thrive in value-based care. Together with more than 1,500 practices in 45 states and the District of Columbia, Aledade shares in the risk and reward across more than 150 value-based contracts representing more than 2 million patient lives under management.