Transforming health care in America.

Our doctors and nurses are not rewarded for recommending an additional procedure, an expensive test, or one more night in the hospital bed. Instead, the focus is on keeping patients healthy in the communities where they live. At Steward, there’s no emphasis on fee-for-service. The goal is patient health and well-being.

Preventative

Primary care doctors and specialists at Steward prioritize preventive care, using state-of-the-art technology and collaboration to manage chronic health issues so patients can spend more time with their loved ones outside of the hospital leading healthy, active lives.

Physician Led

We pioneered our model in Massachusetts, where we turned around some of the state’s most struggling hospitals and created a thriving health system that improved outcomes, lowered costs, and established lasting partnerships with local communities. Today, we manage this new model of care for 12 million people in 39 hospitals across nine states.

We believe passionately that by emphasizing health and well-being for our patients, Steward’s model represents a new future
for America’s health care system.

Accountable Care Organization (ACO)

Steward Promise is a Medicare Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (ACO), one of 45 organizations across the country participating in the ACO model. Under this model, our primary care physicians, specialists and other caregivers work together to develop a treatment plan specific to a patient’s health care needs. Steward has achieved the best performance among Massachusetts Pioneers and the second best of all Pioneer ACOs in the nation.

We have demonstrated key quality improvements for patients within the ACO and have achieved significant success by maintaining high performance in patient experience year after year while focusing on:

Patient safety and coordination of care
Preventive health, including vaccinations and screenings
Care for populations with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and coronary artery disease

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) have recognized Steward’s Medicare Pioneer ACO as a leading Medicare ACO and as being among the top-scoring ACOs in the nation. Steward achieved more than $30 million in savings under the Pioneer ACO program in the first three years of the program, enabling us to reinvest these resources in information technology, connectivity, integration and care management so that these savings are sustainable and scalable. Steward was also independently ranked by L&M Policy Research as the number one Pioneer ACO in 2013 and number two in 2012 in overall savings.

Steward is following its nationally recognized Medicare care model with a similar program for Medicaid patients that will deliver quality preventive care to improve the health and treatment outcomes of families.

We are one of the few leading Accountable Care Organizations to implement an ACO for Medicaid patients, pioneering innovations that will:

Enhance care coordination and management efforts through formal partnerships with certified behavioral health and long-term services and supports (LTSS) community organizations
Improve electronic health records and ACO analytic capabilities
Reduce avoidable in-patient and emergency department utilization
Implement other key initiatives for ACOs to improve health outcomes and member experience under the new payment models

These programs generate significant cost savings for state Medicaid programs while improving members health. Through its partnerships with state Medicaid agencies, our local, innovative Medicaid ACO models will:

Improve quality and member experience
Integrate the full spectrum of care, including medical care, behavioral health and LTSS
Provide clinical- and community-based support for populations with behavioral health and long-term health care needs
Shift incentives to hold providers accountable for quality and total cost of care for a population of patients
Invest in primary care and community workforce development
Allow for innovative ways of addressing the social determinants of health
Expand access to substance misuse disorder treatment, including treatment for co-occurring disorders