Equality Health, a leader in value-based care, announced that Happy Kids Pediatrics and Feliz Care Centers, a 23-year-old independent pediatric practice and associated family practice serving the greater Maricopa County, AZ region, has renewed its partnership and signed a five-year contract with Equality Health Network. As the largest family-owned pediatric practice in the state, Happy Kids/Feliz Care was an early adopter in joining the Equality Health Network and has been working with the value-based care enabler since 2017.
“Equality Health has been a tremendous strategic partner and a significant driving force in our successful shift from fee for service to quality, value-based care,” said Jose Francisco Carrazco, M.D., F.A.A.P., founder and medical director of Happy Kids/Feliz Care. “From the easy-to-use technology, CareEmpower®, to the people — that literally act as extensions of our practice in the community — Equality Health provides a comprehensive solution set that enables our clinics to be successful in value-based care and unburdens our clinic teams of administrative work in the process.”
Carrazco continued, “Our goal is to make whole-person care accessible and sustainable regardless of socioeconomic circumstances. Equality Health helps us remain focused on delivering enhanced care, while keeping the practice moving forward as a thriving business.”
Happy Kids and Feliz Care Centers initially engaged Equality Health to help the practices to retool its workflows and processes to align with value-based care, to help ensure access to care, and to assist patients with non-medical factors, such as Social Determinants of Health (SDoH), which pose challenges to individual health and care access.
“Happy Kids/Feliz Care is an amazing value-based care success story, and we are proud to work alongside their team to enable them do what they do best — providing exceptional care for the families of Maricopa County,” said Lisa Stevens Anderson, Regional Market President for Equality Health. “This practice has been with us since the beginning, and we are thrilled they have been so satisfied with the partnership, Dr. Carrazco and his team have chosen us to be their exclusive value-based partner for another five years.”
“Independent primary care practices (PCPs) like Happy Kids/Feliz Care are the lifeblood of community health, and Equality Health is dedicated to helping providers not only successfully pivot to value-based models, but to thrive in the new healthcare ecosystem,” she said.
Equality Health services provided to Happy Kids/Feliz Care include access to payer contracts with the major Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and other payers; bearing risk and offering a value-based financial model; providing a dedicated performance practice manager who helps the practice gain access to SDoH services such as housing, food and transportation; and the value-based care tech platform, CareEmpower®, which helps the practice track patient populations, trigger proactive care approaches, and report for the new VBC quality metrics.
Happy Kids/Feliz Care takes full advantage of Equality Health’s offering, and effectively leveraged CareEmpower’s telehealth solution to remain viable during the pandemic, gaining back at least 10 percent/month of the business lost during the pandemic across 2022.
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