When many people leave a top post in the federal government, the familiar move is to a comfortable job for a well-funded global organization packed with power lunches and lobbyists. And when Farzad Mostashari, MD, stepped down as National Coordinator for Health IT he spent some time as a visiting fellow at Brookings Institution before hopping into the private sector.
Now, as CEO of startup Aledade, Mostashari said he focuses a lot on physicians, clinical issues and practice management amid the shift toward new payment models.
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“It’s like Population Health 101,” he said. The work is all about helping medical practices execute on the basic opportunities technology offers: enabling physicians to know each day who their patients are, what has happened in their recent history and, in turn, making sure those patients know that doctors care about them.
That education is a foundation for what doctors and providers need to move into the quickly changing world of accountable, coordinated and value-based care.
“The shift from volume to value is a trillion dollar opportunity right now,” he said, and noted that large hospital systems are far along the path toward making that transition. But others are struggling. “It’s very difficult for those rooted in a volume-based model.”
Mostashari said that the primary care physicians are having the greatest need. “It’s very much about changing workflows, bringing in analytics and technology to the point of care and actually changing the care that’s being delivered,” he said.
Aledade now has contracts with physician practices in Delaware, Florida, West Virginia, Arkansas and Mississippi, and he is thrilled to see improvements in basic metrics like readmission rates as he helps with implementation.
So what’s it like to leave a job as powerful as national coordinator and strike out on your own building a startup?
“When I came to federal service, I came from grass roots in New York City,” he said. “And I felt that one of the value adds that I brought was a very granular, very grounded understanding of the realities. And over time you make withdrawals from that.”
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Indeed, prior to joining the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, Mostashari was the founder of a community project to bring EHRs to physicians in underserved communities.
Looking back on his time in government service, he feels it is important that there is “a flow of people from the private sector into the public, in order to give policymakers a realistic view of what’s happening.”
Asked if he misses the action at the center of government, he acknowledges that it was a privilege to have an opportunity to impact so many lives.
“I’m really appreciative of being back in the field,” he said. “Thank god it’s not a lot of committee meetings.”
At HIMSS16, Mostashari is scheduled to appear in the Views from the Top series. His talk is titled “How Accountable Care Organizations Can Harness the Power of Health Data and Analytics.” Tuesday, March 1, 4 pm. Rock of Ages Theater.
Twitter: @GusVenditto
