ICYMI: Business Acumen Center Weekly Update

ANCOR is sharing this item from last Friday’s Weekly Update as a courtesy to our members.

As written by Donna Martin, Director of State Partnerships and Special Projects:

This week’s work brought me to Worchester, Massachusetts for the Annual Meeting of the Association of Developmental Disabilities Providers (ADDP).  I was so happy to be invited to bring greetings from ANCOR and to update those present on the great work of our team including Government Relations, Communications, the “Included, Supported, Empowered” campaign, and even my work on Business Acumen and Integrated Care.  Having been a member of ANCOR for so many years, it was great to see old friends and spend some time with that association.

As part of my overview, I spoke to the group about the goal of the Business Acumen grant and ANCOR’s commitment to supporting “provider readiness” for operating in an integrated care environment.  Certainly most of the providers in the room have been at the helm of those organizations for many years and have developed substantial “business acumen”, but for many of them the move to integrated care with value-based purchasing, pay for performance, or even some level of risk sharing can be daunting.  One of the unexpected take-aways I found was in a conversation with one member who is struggling to develop better services for some people he supports who have very complex medical needs.  He had experience in an earlier part of his career working in a PACE program and saw first-hand the benefits integrated care can offer.  He was looking for resources to help him strategize about building something comparable for those he supports now.  Because ANCOR is such a collaborative network, I was able to connect him to a couple members in another state who have developed cutting edge programs in this area.  They are already planning time to for conversation and to support one another in achieving better outcomes for people served.