Intensive care coordination and quality improvement efforts have made a significant difference in the lives of thousands of individuals—and helped the Johns Hopkins Medicine Alliance for Patients (JMAP) achieve a 96.2 percent quality score and reduce rates of hospital admissions and emergency department visits by 2 percent from 2014 to 2015. Its quality performance places JMAP among the top quarter nationally and among the top three in Maryland for accountable care organizations (ACOs) that had a quality score in 2015.

Urgent specialty access and population-based pharmacy review were additional efforts likely contributing to JMAP’s achievements, says Scott Berkowitz, senior medical director of accountable care in the Office of Johns Hopkins Physicians and executive director of JMAP.

Launched in January 2014, JMAP is a Medicare Shared Savings Program ACO comprising the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, the five Baltimore-Washington metro area health system hospitals, Columbia Medical Practice, Potomac Physician Associates and Cardiovascular Specialists of Central Maryland. In all, some 2,900 providers care for 38,000 fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries.

When a Medicare Shared Savings ACO reaches a savings threshold while attaining a number of quality targets, such as controlling high blood pressure or screening for fall risk, it shares in the savings generated. In 2015, only about a quarter of ACOs nationwide qualified for shared savings.

“Despite its excellent quality performance and improvement in key utilization measures, JMAP, unfortunately, did not achieve shared savings in 2015, but there is much to be proud of in these efforts, which involve the active collaboration of dozens throughout the enterprise, prepare Johns Hopkins Medicine for the future and optimize care for our patients,” says Berkowitz.

“We are very pleased with the progress made so far,” says DeWayne Oberlander, CEO of Columbia Medical Practice, an independent primary care practice in Howard County. “We have been a partner in JMAP since its inception and look forward to continuing to improve the quality and value of its care.”