Mostashari announces startup to focus on inexpensive launch of ACOs

Former head of the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), Farzad Mostashari, MD, MSc, has launched a startup company with $4.5 million in seed money.

Aledade, which reflects North Star navigation, will focus on helping primary care physicians form accountable care organizations (ACOs).

In a blog post on the new company's website, Mostashari said his experience at the ONC and the New York Department of Public Health before helped him find his cause. "It’s to help independent primary care doctors re-design their practices, and re-imagine their future. It’s to put primary care back in control of healthcare, with 21^st century data analytics and technology tools."

Mostashari has spent the past nine months as a fellow at the Brookings Institution Engelberg Center where, he wrote, "he spent his time talking to and visiting with leading practitioners throughout healthcare. For me, health IT was never the 'ends,' but a 'means' to better health and better care, and I continue to believe that better data and technology is the key to a successful transformation of healthcare. And it is why the attempts to do so now can succeed, where they have failed before."

Through the Medicare Shared Savings Program, 338 ACOs have saved an estimated $147 million in their first year. And, 72 percent of the ACOs that achieved savings were physician-led which indicates the need for small, independent medical practices to adopt this model.

"Aledade makes it easy and inexpensive for primary care physicians to form ACOs. We offer primary care doctors a complete package of resources and technology needed to establish the ACO with no upfront costs," according to the company's website.

For more on the company and to read Mostashari's complete blog post, visit Aledade's website.