Philips and Atrium Health Sign Innovative Risk-Sharing Agreement for the Care of Patients with Peripheral Vascular Disease

Philips and Atrium Health’s Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute have taken a bold step toward advancing value-based care by signing a risk-sharing agreement. Led through the Image Guided Therapy Devices business, the 12-month agreement links Philips’ advanced imaging technology capabilities to the achievement or avoidance of critical outcomes for patients with peripheral vascular (PV) disease. This is the industry’s first risk-sharing agreement in the country for PV-specific procedures.

Towards value based care

The novel approach is possible as both Philips and Sanger share a mutual goal to improve patient care by reducing unplanned readmissions and procedural complications for patients with PV disease. As part of the risk-sharing agreement, Philips will track the results of procedures which use its PV technology and measure them against industry-standard quality goals. If the desired outcome metrics are not met, a portion of the cost will be delivered back to Sanger.

“The U.S. healthcare landscape continues to migrate toward value-based care,” said Christopher Barys, Business Leader of Philips Image Guided Therapy Devices. “By truly sharing the risk with Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute, Philips is going beyond its commitment to deliver exceptional product performance by helping our customers achieve their clinical, financial and operational goals.”

Offering excellent care to patients

Sanger is committed to offering excellent care to patients. For instance, the Heart Success program offers access to holistic care to heart failure patients. Readmissions among heart failure patients have dropped from 19% to 15% — well below the 25% readmission rate seen nationally. Additionally, teams are addressing the quality, safety and value of cardiac care through the Perfect Care: Personalized Cardiac Care and Collaborative pilot across six hospital locations.

“This agreement is another example of Sanger’s commitment to value-based care,” said Frank Arko, III, MD, co-director of the Aortic Institute at Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute. “By linking performance to payment, we have the opportunity to further enhance the quality of care for peripheral vascular disease patients.”

Extending value-based program to other hospitals

Philips is currently participating in a similar value-based program with another entity for cardiovascular care that focuses on the treatment of stable ischemic heart disease patients. Its continued success contributed to the development of this agreement with Atrium Health. Criteria established for these benchmarks was objective and standard in the industry. Both companies face equal upside and downside risk.