January 18, 2023 – The National Association of ACOs (NAACOS) announces its 2023 Board of Directors as the organization grows in size and prominence and accountable care becomes an increasingly critical part of how health care is paid for and delivered. The Board of Directors helps set NAACOS’ advocacy agenda and member services for its ACO members and its work is important as the Biden administration works to implement its publicly stated goal to have all traditional Medicare beneficiaries in care relationships with providers who are accountable for their quality and total cost of care by 2030. The 2023 Board consists of ten seats for single ACOs, six seats for organizations with multiple ACOs, one private payer ACO seat, and the CEO, Clif Gaus. An election was held in the fall for five open single-ACO representative seats and two open multi-ACO representative seats with the following result:
Single-ACO Representatives (three-year term):
- Geoffrey Nicholson, Jr., WellSpan Health
- Stephen Nuckolls, Coastal Carolina Quality Care
- Margarita Ollet, Health Choice Care
- Arshad Rahim Mount Sinai Health System
- Bob Rauner, OneHealth Nebraska ACO
Multi-ACO Representatives (three-year term):
- Rebecca Adkins, Ascension
- Melanie Matthews, MultiCare Connected Care and PSW (reelected)
The 2023 Board Executive Committee members are:
- Chair: Tony Reed, ChristianaCare
- Chair-elect: Emily Brower, Trinity Health
- Past-Chair: Debbie Welle-Powell, Formerly with Essentia Health
- Treasurer: Travis Broome, Aledade
- Secretary: Stephen Nuckolls, Coastal Carolina Quality Care
- Member-at-Large: Melanie Matthews, MultiCare Connected Care and PSW
Continuing board members not listed above include Tim Gronniger, Signify Health; Jen Moore, MaineHealth ACO; Rebecca Rohrbach, NOMS Healthcare; Nina Taggart, Lehigh Valley Health; Anthony Valdes, Collaborative Health System; Karen Wilding, Nemours Children’s Health and Delaware Children’s Health Network; and Clif Gaus, NAACOS President and CEO.
NAACOS would also like to announce new members of its 2023 Policy and Quality Committees. The NAACOS Policy Committee helps guide the NAACOS advocacy agenda to improve the long-term stability and success of the accountable care model. Policy Committee members provide vital feedback to NAACOS on a variety of issues related to the accountable care model, including on policy changes, regulations, and legislation under consideration by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Congress.
Travis Broome, Aledade, continues to hold the chair position and the new member of the committee is:
- Trevey Davis, Upstream
The NAACOS Quality Committee is comprised of board members and NAACOS members with direct involvement in ACO quality improvement efforts. The committee evaluates quality initiatives and requirements that relate to ACOs and focuses on the role of quality in population-based payment models. Committee members help develop and guide NAACOS quality strategy pertaining to Medicare ACO models such as the Shared Savings Programs and other payers with ACO contracts.
The new chair of the committee beginning in 2023 is Ashish Parikh, Summit Health-NJ, and new members of the committee are:
- Pamela Bruce, Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network ACO
- Brian Steele, Collaborative Health Systems
- Nate Hunkins, Bluestone ACO
- David Basel, Avera Health
In 2022, NAACOS established an Education Committee to advise the board on long- and short-term planning of educational activities that address the needs of members. There are no newly appointed members at this time.
ACOs are a market-based solution to help lower the cost of health care spending, where groups of doctors, hospitals and other providers take responsibility for the total cost and quality of care for their patients. ACOs are incentivized to lower costs by spending less than pre-determined targets and hitting quality measures, earning the right to share generated savings.
