Partnering with Health Plans to Improve Financial Solvency, Organizational Autonomy, and Patient Care: Community Health Network of Washington

This case study examines how the Community Health Network of Washington (CHNW), an alliance of 19 health centers across Washington State, formed and operates the Community Health Plan of Washington (CHPW), one of the first health-center governed health plans in the country. CHNW’s participation in a managed care network better positioned its health center members to negotiate greater control within managed care and pursue accountable care strategies. For a subset of CHNW’s members, participation in CHPW also enabled them to form a separate independent provider association (IPA) to contract with Washington’s other Medicaid health plans. CHNW’s experience offers important lessons to health centers interested in forming alliances to gain greater leverage with health plans and pursuing accountable care strategies, and to health centers interested in forming their own IPAs.