November Edition 2019
Inside This Issue
Austin at the Cutting Edge of a New— Business of Health Dell Medical School is Bringing Together Diverse Partners – Including Community-Based Organizations, Health Care Payers and Investors – In New Ways To Rethink The Path To Better Health For Vulnerable Populations.
Paralyzed Veteran Now a Marathoner See pg. 8
INDEX Legal Matters....................... pg.3 Oncology Research......... pg.4 Mental Health...................... pg.6 Healthy Heart..................... pg.12
Age Well Live Well See pg. 13
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it h t h e u lt i m a t e g o a l o f improving population health, a novel initiative launched by Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin is working to shift the focus to health – not just health care – and creatively aligning unconventional partners to identify, prove and pay for drivers of health outside of more traditional settings like clinics and hospitals. Known as Factor Health, the program’s first efforts are focused on well-known health challenges among two vulnerable groups: chronic disease management for home-bound older adults and the mental health impacts on youth who have experienced family trauma. The atypical assortment of players involved, all with a stake in Factor Health’s success, include the Houston-based Episcopal Health Foundation, which invested $2.6 million to launch the program; managed care payers Amerigroup Texas and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas; and Austin-based social service providers Meals on Wheels Central Texas and grassroots youth development organization Youth Rise Texas.
“The major gap in all of our talk about health care is that we are failing to address health,” said Mini Kahlon, PhD, Dell Med’s vice dean and executive director of Factor Health. “There are all kinds of organizations that are, today, contributing to better health. The problem is, the healthcare system doesn’t pay them for it. That’s where Factor Health and our team at Dell Med come in.” The Factor Health approach is different, Kahlon said. “It’s about moving beyond traditional, fee-for-service care found in hospitals and clinics, to helping everyone in the health ecosystem – investors, health care payers, community-based organizations, academic medical centers – see themselves and the roles they can play in health differently.” “Factor Health has already been successful in bringing together unconventional partners who are thinking creatively about health outcomes,” said Karen DeSalvo, MD, MPH, a Dell Med professor and former acting assistant secretary for health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Now the challenge is to demonstrate measurable improvements in health. I expect that payers around the country – not to mention other academic medical centers – will be watching with interest.”
Demonstrating and Measuring Success As a first step, the Factor Health team is testing health programs that include an anchor provider, payer partners and a funding partner. The team will work with each to maximize opportunities and enable success, including identifying business needs, finding and vetting relevant partners, defining success metrics, addressing policy hurdles, enabling data sharing, defining health outcomes and collaboratively crafting new payment methodologies. Partners will regularly and collaboratively review results, and plan for payment models based on outcomes to support the program at scale after the demonstration period. Ultimately, the intent is for payer partners to transition to longer-term funders. The first two programs, both funded by the Episcopal Health Foundation, include: Aging at Home: Diabetes Management for Older Adults Anchor provider partner: Meals on Wheels Central Texas Payer partner: Amerigroup Texas This project is designed to help older adults with diabetes better manage their disease at home, thus improving overall health and decreasing the need for expensive (and see Business of Health... page 13
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