Ropes & Gray Helps Launch New York Area’s First Accountable Care Organization for the Developmentally Disabled

Ropes & Gray represented the New York Integrated Network for Persons with Developmental Disabilities (NYIN) in the successful formation of an accountable care organization (ACO) – Accountable Care Coalition of Greater NY (ACCGNY) – and the ACO’s application to participate in the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP).

NYIN is a not-for-profit corporation composed of seven leading agencies that have a long history of providing individualized care coordination and long-term supports and services to individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities, either directly or through their member organizations, across the metropolitan New York City, Long Island and Mid-Hudson regions. Because of the complexity of this population’s health care needs, the individuals served by NYIN’s member organizations (and other similar providers) are likely to incur significant costs associated with their medical care. The ACO structure uniquely serves this population because it brings together health care providers in a coordinated, integrated way that facilitates collaboration, communication, accountability and evidenced-based medicine to provide better, potentially less costly care.

The MSSP is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) with an interest in coordinating the care provided to Medicare beneficiaries in an effort to improve care and reduce costs. CMS announced on December 23, 2013 that ACCGNY had been accepted to participate in the MSSP. ACCGNY is the first MSSP ACO in the region specifically that serves primarily individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

To form ACCGNY, NYIN brought together nearly a dozen providers of health care services, including several of its own members, and partnered with Collaborative Health Systems, LLC, an affiliate of Universal American, which offers experience in ACO management and care coordination. As a result of its unique composition, organizations in other states may look to it as a model for the coordination and integration of care to special populations.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by New York-based health care partner Stephen Warnke and included health care associate Sarah Blumenthal (Washington, D.C), tax partner Kendi Ozmon (Boston) and tax associate Gil Ghatan (Washington, D.C).

For more information, read the ACCGNY press release and a news article in Crain’s New York Business [subscription required].