Henry Ford Health Honored as AMGA’s 2025 Acclaim Award Recipient

Alexandria, VA – Detroit, Michigan-based Henry Ford Health has been named AMGA’s 2025 Acclaim Award recipient. The Acclaim Award honors healthcare delivery organizations that are bringing the American healthcare system closer to the ideal delivery model – one that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable. For their accomplishments, Dallas Nephrology Associates and WellSpan Health were named Acclaim Award honorees.

Structured around the Quadruple Aim, the Acclaim Award criteria include improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of populations with a focus on quality outcomes, reducing the per capita cost of healthcare, and emphasizing workplace wellness. 

“AMGA’s Acclaim Award outlines what we believe are the highest ideals of patient care,” said Jerry Penso, MD, MBA, AMGA president and CEO. “Henry Ford Health introduced initiatives and programs to further value-based care and ensure system-wide quality outcomes. We congratulate them on their outstanding accomplishments.”

Henry Ford Health was recognized for the following initiatives:

• Utilizing Press Ganey surveys in various programs across the continuum of care to measure patient experience, designating physician leaders to oversee and implement new approaches to improve patient care
• Capturing healthcare quality outcomes through a Primary Health Analytics engine to identify target populations with higher risk scores for proactive comprehensive outreach and care, and benefitting from new programs including closing the loop for patients requesting assistance addressing social drivers
• Tracking per-member per-year savings achieved, increasing shared savings by more than 60% through cost reductions and quality improvements
• Introducing new programs and process changes to reduce physician workload and burnout, such as optimizing clinic team roles, virtual care alternatives, physician support programs, etc. 

“Receiving the Acclaim Award is a great honor that speaks to Henry Ford Health’s dedication to providing remarkable, comprehensive, coordinated, and life-changing healthcare for all,” said Jerry Finkel, MD, senior vice president, chief primary health officer, chief medical officer, value-based enterprise, Henry Ford Health. “Every day, our physicians are deeply focused on building meaningful relationships with; providing the highest quality care for; and improving the health and wellness of our patients. Our mission and core purpose is to make the impossible possible, and we are so privileged to have the opportunity to impact—and improve—the healthcare landscape in Michigan and beyond.”

Dallas Nephrology Associates, an honoree of the Acclaim Award, was recognized for the following initiatives:

• Adding personnel to serve as “Navigators” for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) to help create optimal health outcomes 
• Creating person-centered, value-based care in nephrology by implementing provider and staff education programs on population health management
• Developing a value-based, “outcome-focused” alternative payment approach for kidney health, not kidney failure, to better manage patients and improve outcomes
• Sponsoring a variety of initiatives to support employees’ physical and emotional health, workforce satisfaction, and career progression, such as Manager Retreats, a Helping Hands program, and volunteer opportunities

Acclaim Award honoree WellSpan Health was recognized for the following initiatives:

• Addressing chronic pain care gaps and the national economic impact of chronic pain ($600B) by a novel implementation of the transdisciplinary model to better serve the population, with early success of the WellSpan Restorative Pain Program demonstrating promising results and the likelihood of improving function and lower economic cost in a sustainable and replicable model
• Generating awareness of the importance of patient experience through education for all physicians and team members, including action planning and coaching to demonstrate what the desired experience looks like; reimagining an internal wellness portal to provide a single repository for well-being resources to support care teams and team members
• Identifying the risk for lead poisoning in children and working with local and state health departments to mitigate the risk for exposed children
• Targeting avoidable health failure admissions, unnecessary inpatient rehabilitation referrals, and avoidable emergency department utilization to reduce care costs

AMGA’s prestigious Acclaim Award highlights the continued research and investigation toward finding the finest models of medical management and care delivery coordination, as well as developing a systemic approach to improving the patient and provider experience. 

More information on the Acclaim Award can be found here.

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About AMGA

AMGA is a trade association leading the transformation of healthcare 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. 

AMGA represents medical groups and integrated systems of care. Its diverse membership includes multispecialty medical groups, integrated delivery systems, accountable care organizations, and other entities committed to improving healthcare outcomes. AMGA advocates for the formation of innovative, clinically integrated systems of care that advance population health, enhance patient experience, and reduce healthcare costs. For more information, please visit www.amga.org.