Primary care providers, especially those working within community health centers (CHCs), are pivotal in the shift from fee-for-service to value-based payment (VBP) for health care.

This article is the latest in the Health Affairs Forefront series, Accountable Care for Population Health, featuring analysis and discussion of how to understand, design, support, and measure patient-centered, cost-efficient care under the umbrella of accountable care. Additional articles will be published throughout 2025.

A significant treatment gap exists for individuals living with mental health and substance use conditions. As of 2023, 55% of adults who experienced some form of mental illness receive no treatment and 60% of youth with major depression go without help.

More than two million seniors and people with disabilities (SPDs) enrolled in Medi-Cal in California will be impacted by reforms, initiatives, and new policies being developed through CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal).

CalAIM (California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal) is a comprehensive, multiyear effort led by the California Department of Health Care Services that seeks to implement broad delivery system, program, and payment reform across California’s Medi-Cal program.

At this crucial moment before a second wave of COVID-19 crests and crashes, policymakers should confront a significant payment problem brewing within our primary-care safety net that, if unaddressed, threatens care for millions of Americans.

In communities across the country, staggering unemployment rates and failing infrastructure go hand in hand with significant healthcare challenge

The need to bring high-quality treatment and management of depression, anxiety, and other common behavioral health conditions into primary care has been well documented, but for small to medium-size practices the complex models that are the standard for integrating medical and behavioral care are often beyond their resources.

This chapter traces the history of Montefiore’s Accountable Care Organization (ACO) development including care management experience prior to the Affordable Care Act, administrative structure, and the use of care management as a central element in its ACO.

The Affordable Care Act hastened the emergence of a new healthcare delivery and payment model called Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs).