Amida Care President and CEO Doug Wirth Serves on AIDS United Panel on AIDS Service Organizations
June 29 2017
On June 28, Amida Care President and CEO Doug Wirth served as a panelist for the AIDS United Public Policy Committee at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. The panel, “Presentation by Sector Transformation: Tool Kit to Support HIV-focused Community-Based Organizations in Contracting with Payers,” reported on an effort to assist AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) with access to health care funding. Other panelists included Joel Menges, CEO, and Poornima Singh, Vice President, Government Contracting, of the Menges Group.
The Menges Group presented findings from their “Supporting HIV-Focused Service Organizations in Contracting with Payers” report. The report analyzes the work of four ASOs of varying sizes and functions. ASOs and not-for-profit health plans like Amida Care have the mutual interest of addressing social determinants of health, like access to housing, which improve health outcomes to decrease costs.
The panel discussed the benefits of ASOs and health care plans working together, as they are doing related work to improve health outcomes. Wirth advised ASOs to document and highlight their work of engaging members of health care plans in care and reducing costly hospital visits. ASOs could leverage this value of their work to receive compensation for the services they provide and reinvest this savings in the community.
