This is not just our belief; we have proof that it works because of Partners For Kids.

Partners For Kids is the oldest and largest pediatric accountable care organization in the United States. Created in 1994 by Nationwide Children’s Hospital to serve children in south central and south eastern Ohio, it has most recently been invited by Dayton Children’s Hospital to help children in the west central part of the state. Partners For Kids is now responsible for the care of more than 470,000 children covered by Medicaid Managed Care across 47 counties. Because of Partners For Kids’ size and scope, it has the rare ability to address each part of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Triple Aim:

• It improves the patient’s experience of care by offering quality improvement resources to providers and working with individual families to coordinate services;
• It improves the health of populations with efforts to ensure all 400,000+ children in its regions have access to the care they need when they need it – even when they are not sick;
• It reduces the per capita cost of health care by keeping children as healthy as possible, and by providing the highest quality care when children have health challenges.

As a result, Partners For Kids has a special focus on addressing inequities facing children covered by Medicaid, who are some of the state’s most vulnerable. Partners For Kids was actually created before phrases such as “accountable care organization” and “triple aim” were coined, so it has helped define what value-based, equitable care means in pediatrics.