As you know by now, the Alliance’s performance in our third year in the MSSP program earned us a significant paycheck of around $5 million. Some will be earmarked for physician distribution to help reward those who provided the care and supported the programs that enabled us to be successful. Since there will be ongoing operating expenses, we should also think about a “rainy day fund” to help sustain us through tougher times. Given the twists and turns along the road to value-based care, these tougher times are hard to predict.

But while the sun is shining, we should also consider our commitment to the Triple Aim and what we might do with a portion of these funds to improve the health of our population. There are a number of options to consider in this regard. We have already started to provide medical equipment in the form of nebulizers for our COPD patients. This program could be expanded to improve access to medications. There are a number of healthcare-related educational opportunities for our population that we could fund: alternatives to the emergency department for non-emergent care, participation in one’s own healthcare, preventative care, healthcare literacy, what healthcare surveys mean, lifestyle counseling, hospice and palliative care and advanced care planning, etc. We could expand our efforts to support transporting patients to appointments, testing and treatments with Uber, taxi and Lyft vouchers. Implement and fund Telehealth services. Expand Alliance resources that could help connect patients with community resources to improve housing, financial assistance and food insecurity. Investments in these present-day needs would pay long term dividends and support the mission of the Alliance: to provide superior healthcare through an integrated partnership among patients, providers and community resources.