Ross Owen Explains Hennepin Health ACO's Successful Model of Care

In Hennepin County, Minnesota, the local government has gotten into the business of healthcare and linked a variety of services into an accountable care organization (ACO) model that not only addresses beneficiaries' health needs, but also their social determinants of health, explained Ross Owen, health strategy director of Hennepin County..

Transcript

What are the program components that make up the Hennepin Health ACO?

The Hennepin Health ACO is made up of a number of pieces of Hennepin County's local government. We are a county that is in the healthcare business through the operation of hospital and health system, which includes about 8 primary care clinic sites around the community. We also operate a federally qualified health center and a variety of other public health clinical services, like our healthcare for the homeless clinics and a large mental health center.

We have really taken those clinical components and linked them very closely together with our human services functions, and have financed it through an accountable care organization model that's made possible by Hennepin Health, which is our county's managed care organization. And so through the prospective enrollment of members and total cost of care or capitation payment we receive, as a Medicaid managed care organization, we've been able to link all those clinical and human services components together in an effort to create a more integrated model of care that coordinates and recognizes those social determinants, as well as health needs.