Skip to Main Content

Arkansas Health Network

At a glance

Region: Southeast
Year Started: 2013
Leadership: Bob Sarkar, President
Website: arkansashealthnetwork.com
MSSP: Pathways to Success – Enhanced Track
Lives Managed: 130,000+
Providers: 3,400+

The largest accountable care organization (ACO) in the state, Arkansas Health Network (AHN) manages over 130,000 lives, including nearly 40,000 Medicare patients. AHN, which is led by a 16-member board, serves patients across central Arkansas.

In 2019 and 2020 AHN continued its multi-year streak of success as a Track 2 MSSP-ACO, each year achieving a new record high for overall ACO savings and earned shared savings. It achieved an overall quality score of 92.17% and 98.19% in 2019 and 2020, respectively.

Since their inception, AHN’s seven-year MSSP total savings has surpassed $50 million, earning $26.7 million in shared savings. In 2022, AHN progressed into the MSSP “Pathways to Success” Enhanced Track.

Strategy Highlight:

A key strategy for the network is to focus on providing population health management services for local employers and their health plans, which includes a high-value provider network and advanced care management. In 2019 and 2020, AHN saved $1.3 million for the CHI St. Vincent Employee Health Plan.

To aid in this employer group strategy, AHN launched a partnership in 2018 with Arkansas Children’s Care Network (ACCN). This partnership involving functional integration of an adult and pediatric clinically integrated network is the first of its kind in the industry. The leading CIN in northwest Arkansas, NextHealth (NH), was added to broaden the scope and geographical reach of services to jointly and better care for Arkansans. Each CIN is independent and collaborates using a multidisciplinary care management approach and advanced analytic tools to manage the members on a self-insured employer’s health plan. Together, AHN, ACCN, and NH can care for members from birth to retirement across the state.

The model, branded AR NetPartners, addresses the rising costs of health care, plan beneficiaries’ health and well-being, and access to primary care in the central Arkansas region. The goal of this innovative, new population health coordinated care delivery model is better patient outcomes and experiences at a lower cost to self-funded employers, and subscribers and beneficiaries of their employee health plans. For more information please click on: www.ArkansasHealthNetwork.com/Employers.


President, Arkansas Health Network

Bob Sarkar joined CHI St. Vincent in 2015 as President of the Arkansas Health Network (AHN). Previously, he was responsible for population health management and innovative health plan development for Premier Health based in Dayton, Ohio, and Presence Health in Chicago, Illinois. Sarkar has also provided consulting and program implementation services to some of the leading health care providers across the country, including Kaiser Permanente, Advocate, Johns Hopkins and Aetna, and most recently served as the National Leader of Healthcare and Practice Vice President for Capgemini.

 

President, Arkansas Health Network

Bob Sarkar joined CHI St. Vincent in 2015 as President of the Arkansas Health Network (AHN). Previously, he was responsible for population health management and innovative health plan development for Premier Health based in Dayton, Ohio, and Presence Health in Chicago, Illinois. Sarkar has also provided consulting and program implementation services to some of the leading health care providers across the country, including Kaiser Permanente, Advocate, Johns Hopkins and Aetna, and most recently served as the National Leader of Healthcare and Practice Vice President for Capgemini.