Phoenix-based Equality Health, a trailblazing value-based care (VBC) enabler with a Medicaid-first care model, continues to lead the charge in advancing health equity and improving outcomes for underserved communities. The company shared its 2024 year-in-review, highlighting key milestones such as enabling more than 4,100 primary care providers (PCPs) and covering 735,000 lives across Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Virginia—a 28% expansion of its provider network over 2023.
“Over the past decade, we’ve worked tirelessly to refine and elevate our distinct care model,” said Michael Poku, M.D., Chief Clinical Officer at Equality Health. “By integrating biopsychosocial frameworks, leading technology, data science, community health teams, and targeted support for social determinants of health (SDoH), we’ve set a strong foundation for scalable, outcomes-focused care. As we move into 2025, with the challenges of the pandemic and Medicaid redetermination behind us, value-based care is primed for its breakthrough moment.”
Dr. Poku predicts that 2025 will be a watershed year for VBC, driven by a growing shift among providers of all sizes toward outcomes-based payment models. “The adoption of a range of innovative care models will accelerate the transition from fee-for-service to patient-centered, outcomes-driven care — marking significant progress and propelling the value-based care movement forward,” he added.
Enabling Independent PCPs in Underserved Communities
Equality Health’s innovative approach focuses on enabling independent PCPs in underserved communities with the resources, training, and financial support needed to succeed in VBC. The organization’s integrated services include:
- Practice Performance Managers: Dedicated experts who train staff in cultural competence and VBC technology, while consulting on ways to streamline clinical operations and create new proactive workflows.
- CareEmpower: A proprietary VBC technology platform offered at no cost to in-network providers, enabling data-driven, proactive clinical workflows.
- Community Health Workers: On-the-ground field teams who serve as practice extensions, addressing complex patient needs, administering at-home care, providing spiritual guidance and health education, and ultimately helping patients re-engage with their PCPs.
- Risk-Bearing Financial Support: Accelerated reimbursement for PCPs, alongside streamlined aggregation of health plan contracts and quality metrics reporting.
Tackling Barriers to VBC Adoption
The Commonwealth Fund, a private U.S. foundation dedicated to improving healthcare, issued a 2024 report exploring why primary care has been sluggish in adopting VBC. Just 46% of PCPs reported receiving value-based payments with main reasons including financial and heavy administrative burden. According to the report, PCPs criticize the model for looking good on paper but lacking in practice.
Equality Health as an enablement partner addresses these barriers by reducing complexity and administrative overhead, allowing PCPs to focus on what matters most: patient care.
Key Milestones in 2024:
- Patient Engagement: Equality Health supported over 4,100 Primary Care Providers in 2024, spanning more than 735,000 patients in five states, enhancing patient experiences through personalized care plans and community health outreach programs.
- Reducing Costs: Providers in the network registered an 11% reduction in emergency department use and five-star outcomes for patients navigating chronic diseases.
- Closing Care Gaps & Supporting Wellness Visits: Equality Health’s proprietary practice platform, CareEmpower, helped prioritize hundreds of thousands of opportunities to close care gaps and optimize a practice’s patient outreach. In 2024, Equality Health Network providers administered just shy of 500,000 wellness visits to members across the country.
- Innovative Technology: CareEmpower is at the core of the Equality Health model. The leading technology ingests data from Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and Healthcare Information Exchanges (HEIs) to create actionable steps to drive proactive clinical workflows and enhanced care, especially for high-risk patients.
- Foundation Support: Working together with the Equality Health Foundation, Equality Health distributed more than 15,000 pounds of food to families through its Healthy Fall Festivals held in Arizona, Texas and Tennessee; assisted in the stuffing of over 2,000 children’s backpacks to prepare for the 2024 back-to-school season; and supported the distribution of over 10,000 diapers and children’s health supplies at the 2024 Healthy Mama Festival in Phoenix last March.
- Recognition: Highlighted by Pitchbook in its 2024 Value-Based Care Enabler Landscape Report for its Medicaid-first approach, which distinguishes Equality Health from peers in the VBC space. Equality Health founder Hugh Lytle was a Southwest Region Winner of EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, recognized as a “healthcare rebel” for his visionary leadership in founding Equality Health.
