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Contact:

Sharon Grace
Vice President, Public Relations
703.838.0033 ext. 393
sgrace@amga.org

March 9, 2018

AMGA Recognizes 16 Organizations for Achievements in Diabetes Care and Commitment to Healthcare Quality

Phoenix, AZ – Yesterday, AMGA honored 16 medical groups and health systems for their efforts in improving healthcare quality. Seven organizations received 2018 Together 2 Goal® Awards for their achievements in diabetes care, and nine were recognized as 2018 Foundation Stars for their commitment to healthcare quality as demonstrated by their participation in and support of AMGA Foundation’s quality programs.

The 2018 Together 2 Goal® Awards honor the top performers in the Together 2 Goal® campaign, a national initiative uniting 150 medical groups and health systems in an effort to improve care for 1 million people with Type 2 diabetes by 2019. As a part of the campaign, the awardees have been implementing best practices to improve the quality of diabetes care at their organizations and reporting results for their diabetes patients on a variety of measures, including blood sugar control, blood pressure control, lipid management, and testing for kidney disease.

The 2018 Together 2 Goal® Award winners are:

• Best Performance¹ by a Small Group²: Baton Rouge Clinic and PriMed Physicians

• Best Performance by a Large Group³: Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group, Inc.

• Most Improved⁴ Small Group: The Portland Clinic

• Most Improved Large Group: Mercy Medical Group and Tulane University Medical Group

• Honorable Mention⁵: Coastal Carolina Health Care, PA

Additionally, the Foundation distributed nine 2018 Foundation Star Awards to member organizations for their participation in four or more AMGA Foundation initiatives that focus on improving health and health care. These initiatives include: applying for the Acclaim Award, which honors high performing healthcare organizations; participating in one or more Best Practices Learning Collaboratives; taking part in an AMGA national campaign focused on chronic disease management; and donating to the Foundation.

The 2018 Foundation Star awardees are:

• Aurora Health Care Medical Group

• Billings Clinic

• Henry Ford Medical Group

• Intermountain Medical Group

• Olmsted Medical Center

• PinnacleHealth Medical Group

• Quincy Medical Group

• UnityPoint Clinic

• Wellmont Medical Associates

“We are pleased to recognize these leading healthcare organizations for their passion for improving care as well as their commitment to our Foundation and its mission,” said John W. Kennedy, M.D., chief medical officer, AMGA, and president, AMGA Foundation. “We are proud to collaborate with groups to advance high performance health care and to make a positive impact on millions of patients across the country.”

About the Together 2 Goal® Campaign
AMGA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of AMGA, launched Together 2 Goal®, a three-year national campaign to fight the challenge of Type 2 diabetes on March 12, 2016. Together 2 Goal® includes more than 150 medical groups, health systems, non-profit partners, and corporate collaborators such as the American Diabetes Association, American Association of Diabetes Educators, Novo Nordisk, Inc., Geisinger Health System, Henry Ford Health System, Intermountain Healthcare, and Ochsner Health System. The goal of the three-year campaign is to improve care for 1 million people with Type 2 diabetes by 2019. Together2Goal.org

About AMGA Foundation
AMGA Foundation is AMGA’s philanthropic arm that enables medical groups and other organized systems of care to consistently improve health and health care. AMGA Foundation serves as a catalyst, connector, and collaborator for translating the evidence of what works best in improving health and health care in everyday practice. amga.org/foundation

About AMGA
AMGA is a trade association leading the transformation of health care in America. Representing multispecialty medical groups and integrated systems of care, we advocate, educate, innovate, and empower our members to deliver the next level of high performance health. AMGA is the national voice promoting awareness of our members’ recognized excellence in the delivery of coordinated, high-quality, high-value care. More than 175,000 physicians practice in our member organizations, delivering care to one in three Americans. For more information, visit amga.org

1. Best performance is based on self-reported data submitted to the campaign for the diabetes bundle measure, which includes blood sugar control, blood pressure control, lipid management, and testing for kidney disease.

2. A small group is defined as a medical group or health system with fewer than 150 FTE physicians.

3. A large group is defined as a medical group or health system with 150 or more FTE physicians.

4. Improvement is based on self-reported data submitted to the campaign and is measured as the percentage improvement on the diabetes bundle measure in one year.

5. Honorable mention recognizes the best performance among participating organizations whose self-reported data is limited to blood sugar control rates.