Who is DVACO?

We are the area’s largest Accountable Care Organization, leading the way in health improvement by streamlining provider participation to enhance the quality and personalization of patient care.

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What it Means for
Your Care

We work with Beneficiaries in collaboration with their primary care providers, specialists, hospital-based care managers, practice-based care coordinators, and a multitude of agencies, in an effort to reduce fragmentation of patients’ care.

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What it Means for
Your Practice

By working together we have a tremendous opportunity that extends beyond participation. The size of DVACO and the reputation of our providers and health systems allow us to leverage resources optimally for the benefit of all our participants.

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From the President

Delaware Valley ACO CEO Mark Angelo on the future of value-based care

“What we’re doing is changing the paradigm of care,” Angelo said

.

Read Mark’s projections for the future of value-based care in a recent interview on Healthcare Brew responding to the following questions:

  • How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in healthcare?
  • What would you consider the most challenging part of your job?
  • What healthcare trend are you most optimistic about, and why?
  • Do you think the 2030 goal is feasible?

Dr. Mark Angelo Addresses Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health

Mark Angelo, M.D., Delaware Valley ACO’s Interim President & CEO, joined the “Identifying and Managing High-Cost Claimants” panel of speakers at the Annual Conference of the Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health. The well attended conference was held May 26, 2022 in Center City Philadelphia. Read more about the conference.

Two Key Population Initiatives

DVACO is moving forward with a strategy to identify and manage two key populations: those with serious illness and those with social needs that are impacting their health status (also known as social determinants of health.) Read more about these initiatives

Wins and Challenges

At the end of 2020, I shared a reflection with the DVACO stakeholders, discussing the challenges of what was a tumultuous year. As we look forward, I would like to share those thoughts.

Leadership Changes at DVACO

Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization announced the resignation of Katherine Schneider, M.D., M.Phil., FAAP as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective March 26, 2020. Dr. Schneider led DVACO during a period of unprecedented growth, success and transformation, managing one of the largest ACOs in the nation. She is the recent former Chair of the National Association of ACOs.

Mark Angelo, MD, MHA, FACP has accepted the role of Interim President & CEO of DVACO effective March 26, 2020, while retaining the responsibilities of his current role, Chief Medical Officer (CMO). Prior to joining DVACO in 2019, Dr. Angelo served as CMO and CEO, AllCare Health Alliance ACO and Medical Director, Center for Population Health and Primary Care at Cooper University Health Care.

Additionally, also effective March 26, 2020, Beth Souder, PT, MSPT will take on the role of DVACO Interim Vice President of Clinical Operations. Ms. Souder will oversee quality, care coordination, practice transformation leads, Post-Acute Care (PAC) and the Value Oversight Subcommittee (VOS). Ms. Souder previously served as Main Line Health’s Process Improvement Engineer for Post-Acute Services, among other roles.

Delaware Valley ACO Ninth Physician Education Conference

DVACO hosted area physicians, nurses, and other clinicians at our 2019 Spring Conference held on May 2, 2019. This was the ninth such event in our organization’s history, and as always, the focus was best practice in population health.

Those in attendance this year benefited from the experience and vision of Diane Meier, M. D., a leading authority on Palliative Care and the management of seriously ill patients.

Read more about the event and why it matters so much to the healthcare quadruple aim.

Welcoming DVACO’s New Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Mark Angelo.

Delaware Valley ACO is fortunate to have Mark Angelo, M.D. joining us as Chief Medical Officer and his timing could not be better.

With the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (“CMS”) announcing challenging new models for its Medicare Shared Savings Program (“MSSP”) and deeper engagement with commercial payers in our future, Mark is taking the clinical reins of the organization at a pivotal point.

Fortunately, he comes well prepared for the tasks ahead. He joins DVACO from Cooper University Health Care where he served in many roles, including Medical Director for Population Health and as Chief Executive Officer of the AllCare Health Alliance ACO. He will manage all activities of the DVACO clinical team including quality, care coordination, population health pharmacy, post-acute strategy, clinical integration and practice transformation.

For more from Dr. Angelo, including a blog post about practice transformation and the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit (“AWV”), click here.

DVACO Selected as one of 79 Renewing Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs

The Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization (DVACO) was selected as one of 79 renewing Medicare Shared Savings Program ACOs, providing Medicare beneficiaries with access to high-quality, coordinated care across the United States, CMS announced today. Beginning January 1, 2017, a total of 480 Shared Savings Program ACOs are serving over 9 million assigned beneficiaries.

“DVACO has become one of the largest ACOs in the country and has experienced tremendous success in both high quality and smarter spending,” says Katherine Schneider, MD, President of the DVACO. “We are honored to have been selected once again to continue our mission of transforming the care delivery model in the Philadelphia region and beyond.”

Read more

News and Updates

Keeping up with the healthcare industry

Future Trends to Watch for Value-Based Care

Dr. Mark Angelo, CEO and President and Joel Port, Senior Vice President of Business & Network Development share their thoughts on the Future Trends to Watch for Value-Based Care including:

  • Increased Adoption By Health Care Providers
  • Use of Advanced Analytics and Technology
  • Social Drivers of Health and Health Equity
  • Personalized Medicine, Patient-Centered Care, and Outcomes

Read the full article here

How Main Line Health, Delaware Valley ACO Used Palliative Care to Cut Hospitalizations by 50%

The Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization (ACO) has leveraged a comprehensive, community-based palliative care program developed by its partner Main Line Health to reduce costs of care by $9,000 per eligible patient.

Among Delaware Valley’s palliative care recipients, hospital admissions were 50% lower and emergency department visits fell by 35%, generating about $9,000 in savings per patient during the last 90 days of life, according to Beth Souder, the ACO’s vice president of clinical operations.

Read complete article at Hospice News

DVACO Presenting at the ACHE 2023 Congress on Healthcare Leadership!

DVACO Presenting at ACHE 2023
We are happy to announce that we will be presenting at the ACHE 2023 Congress on Healthcare Leadership! This event features an incredible group of leaders exploring practical solutions to the challenges we face in healthcare today.

Be sure to join us for our presentation Managing Value-Based ACO Performance Focusing on Network Performance and Health Equity Through Advanced Analytics on Wednesday, March 22nd from 3:15-4:15pm. Hope to see you at #ACHECongress! #ACO #POPULATIONHEALTH #VALUEBASEDCARE #DelawareValleyACO #MSSP

Check out the other presenters and sessions here: https://congress.ache.org/

DVACO Recognizes 2022 Healthcare Quality Week

Healthcare Quality Week is celebrated each year during the third week in October. The week is dedicated to acknowledging the progress made by healthcare quality professionals and the work they do to improve patient outcomes. This special time also allows for reflection on past successes, and preparation for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Each day, healthcare quality professionals focus on enhancing patient care and improving outcomes and value. They work in every area of healthcare. Healthcare quality roles include patient safety, regulation, accreditation, analytics, quality review, just to name a few.

Read more about Healthcare Quality Week

DVACO Recognizes World Hospice and Palliative Care Day

Saturday, October 8th was World Hospice and Palliative Care Day- World Hospice and Palliative Care Day 2022 (thewhpca.org). According to The Worldwide Hospice and Palliative Care Alliance, it is estimated that each year 57 million people are in need of palliative care services worldwide with 25 million people at the end-of-life. The underutilization of these services results in 18 million people dying in unnecessary pain and distress each year. The Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization’s (DVACO) mission is to accelerate high quality value-based care in the region.
Read more about World Hospice and Palliative Care Day

Mark Angelo, M.D. on Advancing Health Equity in Palliative and Hospice Care

It was welcomed news when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) announced its commitment to promoting equity in health care as an essential tenet of improving the health care delivery system. At a July 19, 2022 forum sponsored by CMS through the Value Based Care Learning System, Mark Angelo, M.D., who serves as Chief Medical Officer of the Delaware Valley ACO, as well as its President and Chief Executive Officer, contributed to this aim by participating in a national panel on Advancing Health Equity in Palliative and Hospice Care.

Read more on Advancing Health Equity in Palliative and Hospice Care

Main Line Health, Jefferson Health Announce New Equity Partner For Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization

Philadelphia, Pa. (July 12, 2022)—Main Line Health and Jefferson Health, two of the region’s largest health systems, today announced Humana Inc., one of the nation’s leading health and well-being companies, will become an equity partner in the Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization (DVACO). DVACO, first established as a joint venture between Main Line Health and Jefferson Health, supports more than 250,000 total patient lives across various government and commercial programs and is designed to provide personalized, proactive and affordable care for patients in a cost-effective and efficient delivery system. Read the full press release

Delaware Valley ACO Recognized by The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania

Radnor, PA September 21, 2020  Delaware Valley ACO and its parent organizations, Main Line Health and Jefferson Health, were recognized for their collective work to create an innovative collaborative post-acute care strategy by the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (“HAP”). The “2020 Living the Vision Achievement Award” was presented to DVACO and its owners at HAP’s 2020 Patient Safety and Quality Symposium, held virtually September 9-10, 2020.

HAP’s prestigious “Living the Vision Award” recognizes one project that demonstrates accomplishments in all dimensions of the health care “Triple Aim” of improving community health and patient experience, while reducing health care costs. HAP selected DVACO and its owners from among 131 entrants for this honor.

The ACO’s Post Acute Care (“PAC”) Steering Committee, led by Beth Souder, PT, MSPT, DVACO Interim Vice President for Clinical Operations, and comprised of clinical leaders from DVACO, Jefferson Health and Main Line Health, were instrumental in identifying the improvements that led to led to this recognition.

Reflecting on this accomplishment and the work ahead, Ms. Souder stated:

“As the vehicle by which Jefferson Health System and Main Line Health System choose to collaborate on population health and value-based care, it is a true honor to have our collective work recognized and rewarded by HAP with the “Living the Vision Award”. Two large hospital health systems in the Delaware Valley having an aligned, data driven, evidence-based post acute strategy focused on improving value is a win-win situation. It benefits our patients, our post-acute partners, our physicians, our hospital partners and our payor partners.”

This is the third major award for DVACO’s groundbreaking work in post acute services, with work previously recognized by the National Association of ACOs and MCG Health.

Learn more about the 2020 Living the Vision Achievement Award

Read more in Pennsylvania ACO’s Post-Acute Care Strategy Reinforces Best Practices by David Raths

Delaware Valley Accountable Care Awarded 2019 Doyle Award for Innovative Post-Acute Care Strategy

ACO implements evidence-based guidelines within SNF network to improve care coordination and reduce costs by $1.3 million

Radnor, PA, July 24, 2020MCG Health, part of the Hearst Health network and a leading provider of informed care strategies, has named Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization (DVACO) a recipient of the 2019 Richard L. Doyle Award for Innovation and Leadership in Healthcare, awarded to the organization this spring.

The Philadelphia-area ACO was recognized for implementing a unique post-acute strategy which significantly reduced patient length of stay in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and improved care coordination across the post-acute continuum of care. By leveraging MCG’s Chronic Care and Recovery Facility Care guidelines and a web-based tool to track their patients’ stays in post-acute care, Delaware Valley ACO reduced the average length of stay (LOS) by one full day and achieved a $1.3 million savings in Medicare expenditures. The ACO also decreased home health spend by 8% over the same timeframe. Since the ACO’s inception in 2014, they have been able to reduce overall SNF spend in their network by an impressive 30%.

Doyle Award Reactions

Delaware Valley ACO’s strategic initiative used claims data to define the top 20 diagnoses for patients utilizing a SNF. The ACO then partnered with MCG to publish length of stay guidelines for these diagnoses and share them across their SNF network. This critical step encouraged proactive multi-disciplinary care planning at the time of admission. In turn, this helped to identify barriers to discharge earlier in the patient’s stay and initiate the proper actions to resolve them. Delaware Valley ACO’s SNF partners now proactively communicate with a patient’s primary care physician (and/or ambulatory care coordinator) to discuss clinical, social, medication, or palliative care goals. View full Press Release on the Doyle Award

Katherine Schneider, M.D. at Becker’s 11th Annual Meeting in Chicago

The Becker Hospital Review Meeting for April 2020 has been cancelled.

On April 7, 2020 DVACO CEO Katherine Schneider joins Jack Lynch, President and Chief Executive Officer, Main Line Health, and Bruce Meyer, M.D., President Jefferson Health; Senior Executive Vice President, Thomas Jefferson University, as part of a panel discussion: “Building Strong Provider/Payer Relationships Through Collaboration”.  As part of Becker’s ongoing interview series, Dr. Schneider shared thoughts on inspiration, care models, and transformation in healthcare.  View more information on the interview series.

Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization recipient of the National Association of ACOs Innovation Award

The Delaware Valley Accountable Care Organization (DVACO) has been presented with an Innovation Award by the National Association of ACOs for post-acute strategy. The award recognizes accountable care organizations that develop innovative ways to transform the real world care model. Read More

Katherine Schneider, M.D. Discusses the ACO Final Rule with HFMA

When it comes to some of the highest-risk and most costly people in the country, “change doesn’t happen overnight.” In this January 2019 Q & A with HFMA, Dr. Schneider discusses CMS’ December 2018 ACO Final Rule and its likely impact on ACOs.

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DVACO Contact Info

Address 240 Radnor Chester Road, Suite 270, Radnor, PA. 19087
Phone 215-618-4450
Toll Free Number 855-761-9345
Compliance Line 215-486-1040
Email dvaco-mail@dvaco.org
Business Hours 9-5pm
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