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Questions and Answers from 2017 Annual Public Meeting

August 17, 2017

Atlantic Health System, a leading non-profit health care delivery system in New Jersey, held its Annual Public Meeting on Thursday, July 20 at Morristown Medical Center. Those in attendance had the opportunity to hear leaders from the hospital system discuss operations and ongoing work to improve the communities it serves. The presentation began with a welcome message from Chairman of the Board Robert Toohey and included an open dialogue between Atlantic Health System CEO Brian Gragnolati and the audience.

Below is a summary of a conversation with Atlantic Health System leadership and the audience:

Question:
What do you foresee with Accountable Care Organizations?

Response:
The Accountable Care Movement really is a continuation of efforts dating back to the late 1980s and early 1990s seeking to create a system of the right care, at the right place, the right time, at the right price, and always at the right quality.

What occurred under the ACA, or Obamacare, is the Federal government created an ability to do this with Medicare beneficiaries and provided the support and framework to do that.

The great opportunity for ACOs in general was the movement called population care. It changed the traditional model of care between doctors and patients. Through accountable care, these patients are attributed to physicians who are now responsible for what happens once the patient leaves the office. It’s an outreach beyond the walls of the traditional practice to really start to work the population who have really put their trust in us as physicians.

The Accountable Care Movement has really driven collaboration so much further compared to just a few years ago. For the first time we as providers are having the same conversation with our employers, insurers and our communities. The conversation is about this patient-centric opportunity and the challenges of how we can deliver better care, and figuring out how we can pull in community resources and connect all the dots. When we get to that level, I think this model is really going to take off and we’re only going to grow.