Walgreens Study Demonstrates Potential of New Stratified Approach Toward Achieving Triple Aim for Accountable Care Organizations

Article in April Edition of Health Affairs Shows Promise for Improving Population Health Outcomes

DEERFIELD, Ill.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– A new Walgreens (NYS: WAG) (NAS: WAG) research article projects that by taking an innovative approach to classifying patient populations, health systems can more effectively prevent “triple fail” events – or outcomes which fail to advance population health, reduce per capita health care costs and improve individual patient experience . The article, titled “How Health Systems Could Avert ‘Triple Fail’ Events That Are Harmful, Are Costly, And Result in Poor Patient Satisfaction,” was published in the April edition of Health Affairs.

“As pressures on the global health care system continue to mount, the triple aim framework has increasingly been recognized as critical to improving outcomes while lowering costs,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kang, Walgreens senior vice president, health and wellness services and solutions. “At Walgreens, we have seen firsthand through our work with physicians, health systems and our own ACOs the importance of looking for innovative approaches to coordinating care – such as the one analyzed in this article -to keep populations healthy.”

The research examines how classifying (or ‘stratifying’) patients according to individual risk and expected response to an intervention can further the “triple aim.” The triple aim framework, created by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), asks that health systems evaluate performance by simultaneously pursuing three dimensions – improved patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction), improving population health and reducing per capita cost of health care.

“Our findings suggest that if organizations expand their thinking around how to classify patients in order to take a more predictive approach aimed at preventing triple fail events before they occur, the potential benefits for all stakeholders would be significant,” said Ian Duncan, FSA, MAAA, vice president, clinical outcomes and analytics, Walgreens. “Ultimately, this method could become a model for how to address population health and how to help meet the needs of patients, health systems, payers and providers.”

The article examines two approaches that have been used to achieve the triple aim — the population strategy, which seeks to lower risk across an entire population; and the targeted strategy, which seeks to

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