Virginia Garcia congratulates Gil Muñoz as he joins the Board of Managers for the Oregon Network of Community Health Centers (known as The Network.) The Network is a self-governing, clinically integrated network of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and Look-alikes (which are similar to FQHCs but do not receive grant funding.)

Mirroring Virginia Garcia’s own mission and values, The Network serves as a sort of “think tank” for sharing and standardizing best practices, focusing on population health outcomes, health care quality, total care cost, and health equity. The Network allows VG and other health centers to fully participate in value-based pay (VBP) arrangements with the health plans.

Gil already chairs The Network’s ACO (Accountable Care Organization) which is a separate coalition of 15 FQHCs who provide care to any patient, regardless of their ability to pay or insurance type.

In an example of its mission of collaboration, Kavitha Prakash, Director of Data Analytics, recently worked with The Network to create a shared platform for integrating claims data with clinical data. She feels that having Gil on the Board will “bring greater visibility to Virginia Garcia and elevate it on both a state and federal level.”

For Gil, “The Network provides a great opportunity for Virginia Garcia and other health centers to improve our quality, costs, and outcomes, as well as a place to share best practices among our peers.”

Additionally, it “allows us to share costs and quality information to evaluate our progress on VBP contracts, which are becoming more and more prominent in healthcare reimbursements.  VBP is a way to improve quality and manage costs. It is the funding model of the future. We are working on how to perform better—and  through the sharing of data and best practices, we all benefit.”

Gil notes that VG is often ahead of its time in terms of the work that we do involving Care Teams, integrated patient-centered care, the primary care model, and EHR/data infrastructure work. “Now, all of this great foundational work that we have accomplished in the past 15 years is supporting us as we move to the next level, where there will be a focus on VBP for all health centers. It’s a natural evolution.”

There are huge financial benefits as well. Between The Network and ACO work, The Network as a whole (and VG in particular) has realized over $2 million in shared savings.

Finally, Gil emphasizes that “it’s not just about improving VG’s performance…we want healthcare centers across the state to perform at their highest levels.”