Aledade adds 500 new primary care practices, formalizes policy institute

Farzad Mostashari, MD
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Aledade announced it has added more than 500 new primary care practices to its network for 2025.

Meanwhile, the organization has formed a new Aledade Policy Institute to emphasize the importance of primary care in the nation’s health care system.

The public benefit corporation announced the developments this year as it has grown to become the nation’s largest network of independent primary care practices.

“Since day one, Aledade has led the charge in enabling independent primary care doctors nationwide to adopt and thrive in value-based care, enhancing patient outcomes while ensuring practice sustainability,” Aledade Co-founder and CEO Farzad Mostashari, MD, said in a news release. “With every new practice that joins the Aledade network, we gain a greater ability to improve patient outcomes, support practice growth and move health care forward nationwide.”

With the additions, Aledade announced it supports more than 2,400 primary care providers across the United States, with almost 3 million patients covered by value-based care programs. A full 83% of Aledade’s affiliated organizations are participating in the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) for the first time. It is Medicare’s flagship program and the participation rate shows its “growth is fueling value-based care adoption nationwide,” supporting almost one in five practices that are participating.

CMS ACOs

Aledade has grown by 13% the affiliate participation in the Accountable Care Organization Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (ACO REACH). That program takes a three-pronged approach to advancing health equity, emphasizing the health disparities and the needs of people with traditional Medicare in underserved communities.

The organization also has become the leading participant in CMS’ new Primary Care Flex Model. That five-year program aims to empower primary care physicians to innovative, team-based, person-center approaches to care, while increasing participation in ACOs and the number of beneficiaries in accountable care relationships.

Shaping health care policy

Aledade has formalized its effort as a health care influencer with the formation of the Aledade Policy Institute. Sean Cavanaugh, a former CMS deputy administrator who directed the Center for Medicare and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, will lead the institute with four goals:

• Strengthening value-based care models to improve outcomes and reduce costs.
• Enhancing payment and regulatory systems to ensure sustainable primary care, including reducing the administrative burden these practices and health centers face.
• Promoting choice and competition to foster innovation in the U.S. health system.
• Driving interoperability to unlock the potential of health data.

“The Aledade Policy Institute will deliver ideas that draw on evidence and lessons learned from a decade of working with the largest network of independent primary care in the country,” Cavanaugh said in a news release. “This will enable us to more compellingly share evidence-based recommendations that can advance value-based primary care that meets the unique needs of urban, suburban and rural geographies, community health centers and solo and small practices, creating a health care system that is good for patients and lowers costs.”

The institute has enlisted the help of at least four experts in health care rules and regulations.

• Michael Chernew, PhD, chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission and a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Health Advisors.
• Ceci Connolly, CEO of the Alliance of Community Health Plans.
• Avik Roy, president and CEO of the National Institute for Health Care Management
• Bob Kocher, MD, partner at Venrock and a former special assistant to the president for healthcare and economic policy in the administration of President Barack Obama.

“The Aledade Policy Institute will be a powerful voice for advancing primary care and value-based care at this important time in our nation’s history,” Mostashari said in an announcement.

“Sensible policy can materially improve the health outcomes of individuals and communities and the clinicians that serve them,” he said. “Through this institute, we are committed to supporting the needs and lifting up the voices of primary care practitioners and advancing policies that encourage even more widespread adoption of value-based care.”