Empowered PCP: Dr. Brady Steineck on Reimagining Health Care and Transforming Lives

As part of our blog series, The Empowered PCP, agilon health is sitting down with powerful voices in the primary care physician (PCP) community to learn how they’re creating healthier communities through value-based care and to hear their perspectives on empowering other PCPs.

For Dr. Brady Steineck, Chief Executive Officer at Community Health Care, Inc., practicing medicine has always been about providing quality care to patients and improving their health outcomes. But as the health care industry evolved and became more focused on the bottom line, he began to feel disconnected from the reasons he became a doctor in the first place.

In a recent interview with agilon health, Dr. Steineck discussed how partnering with agilon has allowed him to reconnect with his passion for providing the high-quality care senior patients deserve and how value-based care is reimagining health care for both patients and physicians.

“Working under the fee-for-service model proved challenging,” Dr. Steineck notes, “but the full-risk model offered by agilon got us exactly where we wanted to go—full responsibility for all the care and cost of our patients.”

Partnering for Success

This transition toward value-based care aligns with the mission statement and values system that Community Health Care, Inc., has upheld for the past 38 years. Dr. Steineck believes that value-based care goes beyond just treating a single patient; it’s about doing what’s best for the entire community.

Community Health Care, Inc. has remained independent while leveraging agilon’s resources to add physicians and improve their already strong team-based model.

“We’ve been able to add to our teams, and every team now has an RN care manager. We’ve also embedded behavioral health services in about half of our offices, as behavioral health and psychiatry are underserved,” Dr. Steineck says.

Moreover, with the value-based care model, Dr. Steineck’s group is able to expand treatment options for patients. “Our mission to take care of communities has been strengthened, and we’ve been able to add three communities since our partnership with agilon began,” he explains. In addition to growing their team, they’ve also been able to analyze data to identify high-quality specialists and improve communication with them to ensure their patients receive the best possible care.

Combatting Physician Burnout

Dr. Steineck credits the move to value-based care with reducing burnout that can affect physicians.

“Under the new model, my doctors are no longer looking at their schedules worrying that they need to see more patients or schedule more office visits to be paid,” he explains. This has allowed them to be more creative and use other resources, such as in-home visits, to provide better care to their patients.

By moving away from the fee-for-service model, physicians are no longer chained to doing just office visits, which has led to improved physician satisfaction and better patient outcomes. “Best of all, our net promoter score went up from last year because our doctors feel they’re doing more of what they want to do and providing better care to patients,” says Dr. Steineck.

Achieving Better Outcomes

Dr. Steineck believes that their care management model, which includes a strong nurse practitioner component, is the key to achieving better patient outcomes. He shares an inspiring example of how their team was able to help a patient in his early sixties who was struggling with disability and multiple chronic illnesses, while also caring for his elderly mother with dementia. “The NP talked to the doctor, who then grabbed the care manager and behaviorist and sat down with the patient,” Steineck recalls. “The team worked with the patient for an hour, and it was amazing to see how everyone pulled together so quickly to do what was right for their patient.”

Another success story Dr. Steineck highlights is that of a patient with emphysema, living on a fixed income, who had been admitted to the hospital eight or nine times in 2021. After being assigned a care manager in 2022, the patient had zero hospital admissions. These examples demonstrate the power of value-based care and the importance of a comprehensive care management model in improving patient outcomes.

“We’re very proud of the fact that in a recent survey of 3,000 of our Medicare patients, 94% said they received high-quality care from us,” Dr. Steineck says. “We’re making a difference in the lives of our patients, and that’s what matters most.”

In this video, Dr.Brady Steineck, an agilon health physician partner at Community Health Care, Inc., talks about how agilon has empowered him to reconnect with his passion for providing the quality care seniors deserve.

Health Care Reimagined

At agilon, we’re daring to reimagine primary care. For us, it’s about providing total care for seniors, which stems from trusted physician-patient relationships. It’s about quality care delivered by physicians who are empowered with the time and tools that enable them to achieve better health outcomes. Learn more about what agilon health can offer.