
Oyinkansola Oluseun Ajanaku, MS, Janine Knudsen, MD, Yian Xiao, MD, MBA, Scott Heiser, MPH, Ryan Im, Azalea Kim, MD, MBA, MPA
To learn more visit us at https://accompanyhealth.com/
In Detroit, Accompany Health turned an ambitious vision into a remarkable healthcare transformation, lifting their dual eligible (Medicare-Medicaid) patient population’s Star rating for quality of care from 1.7 to 4.2. This feat was accomplished in record time, in a period when value-based care organizations struggle to maintain or improve Star ratings in partnership with health plans. Accompany Health accomplished this within its very first year of operation—entering Detroit as a completely new provider and unfamiliar name to patients—which makes the achievement all the more remarkable. To achieve this milestone went beyond closing care gaps, to rethinking how care is delivered, with a focus on trust-building, teamwork, data-powered precision and every day persistence.
This white paper explores how Accompany Health fused technology, teamwork, and a human-first approach to reimagine quality for Detroit’s most underserved communities. It offers a replicable blueprint for other organizations striving to achieve breakthrough impact. An accomplishment defined by grit, data, and connection, Accompany Health’s 4.2 Star rating in Detroit is a signal of what is possible.
Achieving improvements in Star performance for a Medicare-Medicaid population is challenging in the best of times. Doing so in Detroit, a city with long-standing challenges of historically fragmented care, a high burden of chronic disease, and persistent social inequities, required a fundamentally new way to make change.
Accompany Health's launched clinical operations for the first time ever in Detroit in July 2023. In partnership with a large Medicare Advantage DSNP plan, they sought to drive improvement in 14 key quality measures during the inaugural quality performance year 2024. With a starting composite Star rating of just 1.7 for the engaged population, the work ahead was formidable. By the end of 2024, Accompany Health achieved what many thought impossible: a leap to 4.5 Star rating in quality performance.
Screenings increased. Medication adherence soared. Emergency visits dropped. But most importantly, trust took root. The CMS Star program quality measures aren’t just metrics—they reflect whether people get the screenings, medications, and follow-up care that prevent complications, reduce suffering, and save lives. They’re how we turn clinical excellence into measurable, meaningful impact.
— Alicia Schumacher, CHW and Market Operations




At the heart of Accompany Health's success is a tightly coordinated care team that extends far beyond what most primary care practices can offer. Physicians and Advanced Practice Clinicians (APCs) lead with medical expertise, while nurses and pharmacists provide a second layer of vigilance, helping adjust medications, catch complications early, and ensure chronic conditions are tightly managed. All members of the care team are Accompany Health employees, enabling tight coordination and rapid action to close care gaps effectively.
— Alicia Schumacher, CHW and Market Operations

Community Health Workers (CHWs) are the vital bridge between clinic and home. In Detroit, CHWs regularly accompanied patients to specialist appointments—helping them navigate diagnoses, understand next steps, and follow through.
Visit accompaniment is a simple but powerful way we ensure patients get the care they need. This support builds confidence, prevents cancellations, and ensures vital information flows back to the care team—making care more accessible, understandable, and actionable.
— Jennifer Legge, NP, Advanced Practice Clinician
They also helped patients over the "last mile" of preventive care, delivering FIT kits, explaining how to complete them step-by-step, and checking in to ensure completion.
— Alicia Schumacher, CHW Operations
Accompany Health's tech platform equipped care teams with real-time insights, supporting everything from performance tracking to patient-specific interventions. Its population health intelligence engine provided risk stratification, segmentation, and analytics that enabled precision targeting and timely responses.
Actionable data allowed teams to take a "use every opportunity" strategy, where every patient touchpoint was an opportunity to close quality gaps. This all-hands-on-deck approach directed frontline team bandwidth to highest impact actions and create a patient-centered care plan.
— Alicia Schumacher, CHW and Market Operations

Pharmacists used data visibility to preemptively reach out to patients struggling with medication adherence and streamline formulary navigation. Nurses reviewed hospital admissions data to provide real-time outreach to patients, often preventing readmissions by connecting them to outpatient services.
— Lauren Taylor, RN, Nurse
Patients were engaged through omnichannel outreach and supported with hands-on coaching. From CHWs explaining red zone symptoms in CHF to nurses helping patients organize pills and appointments, education was personalized and practical.
— Keirstin Diller, Patient Support Representative

Teams were trained in motivational interviewing and framed care plans around what matters to each patient. When one patient refused insulin due to fear, a nurse and CHW coached her through the first injection.
The last mile runs through everything we do—because delivering quality means more than designing great care; it means making sure it actually works for the patient in real life.
— Alicia Schumacher, CHW and Market Operations
— Casey Henritz, DO, Medical Director
Measure-specific playbooks made quality workflows replicable, consistent, and scalable. These were embedded in team huddles and tracked in Accompany Health's task system, driven by a workflow engine that ensured follow-up, documentation, and accountability.
Patient Experience Navigators and Community Health Workers (CHWs) triaged insurance coverage and escalated access to payer benefits like home testing, transportation, and devices.
We collaborate closely with our payer partners to align on benefits, coordinate outreach, and share information in real time. Together we can reach members more effectively and ensure continuity of care.
— Jennifer Legge, NP, Advanced Practice Clinician

— Alicia Schumacher, CHW and Market Operations


— Dominique Couture, NP, Advance Practice Clinicians


— Jennifer Legge, NP, Advanced Practice Clinician


— Dominique Couture, NP, Advanced Practice Clinician


— Jennifer Ertelt, RN, Nurse


— Jennifer Legge, NP, Advanced Practice Clinician
Accompany Health's ability to raise quality performance from 1.7 to 4.2 Star rating demonstrates the impact of trust and a learning health system at work. Through iterative care model design and tightly aligned tech and data science infrastructure, Accompany Health has built the capacity not only to deliver results, but to keep improving across every dimension of care delivery.
Detroit's transformation wasn't the result of a single intervention. It was the product of repeated cycles of design, testing, and refinement across clinical operations and technology.
For every payer, provider, and policymaker seeking meaningful, scalable, and equitable improvement: the evidence is strong, the model is proven, and the approach is replicable.
— Alicia Schumacher, CHW and Market Operations
To learn more visit us at https://accompanyhealth.com/
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