Brown & Toland Physicians Helps Generate Savings, Improve Quality for Medicare's Pioneer Accountable Care Program

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial and quality results released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) earlier this week showed that Brown & Toland Physicians' again helped generate significant savings for the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization program in 2013 and helped improve the care of the patients in the program. 

"We are of course delighted that we continued to help improve the quality of care of the Bay Area patients in the Medicare Pioneer accountable care program, and that we were able to generate saving for the Medicare program," said Richard Fish, Brown & Toland chief executive officer. "We will continue to work to refine our approaches to improve the care we deliver to our patients." The 23 healthcare organizations participating in the Pioneer program generated a savings of more than $96 million for Medicare. Brown & Toland helped save Medicare $4.5 million of that total. Additionally, Brown & Toland was one of the 11 Medicare Pioneer participants that will earn shared savings from its participation in the Medicare Pioneer project.

The mean quality score among Pioneer ACOs increased by 19 percent, from 71.8 percent in 2012 to 85.2 percent in 2013, and the Pioneer healthcare organizations showed improvements in 28 of the 33 quality measures, experiencing average improvements of 14.8 percent across all quality measures, which include screening for future fall risk, screening for tobacco use, smoking cessation programs, and controlling high blood pressure.

Currently, close to 190 Brown & Toland physicians, located in San Francisco and San Mateo counties, and the East Bay, are providing care for approximately 16,000 Medicare beneficiaries in Brown & Toland's Pioneer ACO. In addition to the physicians, Brown & Toland's Care Management team of registered nurses, social workers and other healthcare professionals provide additional services and care for these patients. The Care Management team works closely with physicians to deliver care to the Medicare patients. This team approach has proven successful in helping to improve care metrics and reduce costs.

"Our programs, of coordinating care across multiple settings, are helping lower admissions, the total number of inpatient hospital days, and the average length a hospital admission," said Andrew Snyder, M.D., Brown & Toland's chief medical officer. "Our team approach and targeted interventions are also helping improve our patients' quality of life and helping them better manage their health."

Dr. Snyder added that Brown & Toland will continue to improve its care management approach. "We know there is not a single solution that works best so we will continue to customize our programs as needed for the benefit of our patients."

About Brown & Toland Physicians 

Founded in 1992, Brown & Toland Physicians is a leading network of independent doctors focused on delivering personalized, high quality, and affordable healthcare to the San Francisco Bay Area. Brown & Toland's 1,500 physicians, who care for more than 300,000 HMO and PPO patients, are dedicated to improving care through a number of patient-centered programs and use electronic tools to coordinate and deliver care. The group is leading the way forward in healthcare with its patient-centered medical home, My Health Medical Group, and by participating in multiple accountable care projects, such as the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization (ACO) model, and other ACOs for both HMO and PPO patients. To learn more, visit brownandtoland.com. 

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SOURCE Brown & Toland Physicians