Center Collaborations 

The Brookings-Dartmouth ACO Learning Network
The Engelberg Center is working with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice in a partnership that aims to improve the value of health care and address uneven quality and excess costs through innovative policy solutions. The partnership brings together a broad range of stakeholders and links the extensive population-based health care databases maintained by Dartmouth with the health policy research and development expertise of Brookings’ scholars.

Together, the Brookings-Dartmouth team is using its findings to help develop and implement policy reforms that reduce the growth in health care costs and improve the quality of care. Projects include modeling and implementing innovative approaches to payment and delivery system reform.

One such project addresses the pressing need to change the way medical providers are paid under Medicare and other public and private payment systems. The Accountable Care Organization (ACO) proposal offers an approach that rewards providers who improve the quality of care and lower projected costs, rather than promoting increased volume and higher intensity of care. This model could save money and improve health care quality by providing financial support and incentives to providers for coordinating patient care through a shared savings program. The Engelberg Center and Dartmouth are working with a number of communities across the United States to implement the model and evaluate the results.

The Brookings-Dartmouth partnership is led by Engelberg Center Director Dr. Mark McClellan and Dr. Elliott Fisher, Associate Director for Population Health and Health Policy at the Dartmouth Institute. For more information on the Dartmouth Institute, please visit http://tdi.dartmouth.edu.