Update on ACO Operations and Care Management Strategies in the New Jersey Medicaid ACO Demonstration Project
Abstract
The New Jersey Medicaid Accountable Care Organization (ACO) Demonstration was implemented over a three-year period beginning on July 1, 2015 and recently, a one-year extension of the Demonstration was recently authorized. Previously published reports provided quantitative and qualitative information about activities leading up to and in the first year of the Demonstration. This report provides a detailed assessment of ACO activities in Demonstration year 2. It relies on the second round of interviews with leadership and care coordination staff from NJ’s three certified Medicaid ACOs and the Medicaid ACO-like group, the Health Coalition of Passaic County (HCPC). The study team performed a content analysis of the interviews and developed core themes and perspectives, which are outlined below. As in the first round, the content analysis emphasized a search for common themes across the ACOs. Although some commonality was evident, this latest round of interviews produced more information about ACO-specific activities, accomplishments, and plans for the near future. Three overarching themes that emerged from the interviews are listed below:
Insights Results
Lessons learned
Successes
housing authority records
Challenges