Building sustainable primary care through state policy

As a Public Benefit Corporation, Aledade seeks to create a health care system that is good for patients, practices and society. This mission extends to our public policy work, conducted through the Aledade Policy Institute.

The Aledade Policy Institute advocates for state-level policies that strengthen independent and community-based care. The State Policy Program aims to address distinct, state-level needs by engaging in direct advocacy, deepening stakeholder alignment, and serving as a convener between clinicians, partners and legislators.

In 2025, the Aledade Policy Institute is focused on advancing state-level policies that strengthen primary care investment and payment reform efforts. We advocate to enable value-based care, support access to high-quality primary care, reduce administrative workloads, bolster the primary care workforce and protect the sustainability of community health centers.

Our recent outcomes:

In Arkansas, we were responsible for the introduction of SB264, a 2025 bill designed to strengthen primary care, and the inclusion of value-based exemption in successful prior authorization reform legislation in 2023
In California, Aledade helped facilitate $2M in funding to practices in California as part of Discretionary State Aid grant opportunities
Members of the "Health Can't Wait" coalition focused on prior authorization reform in Colorado, resulting in the successful passage of a 2024 administrative workload reduction bill
Alignment with North Carolina stakeholders in support of 2025 legislation to extend the Primary Care Payment Reform Task Force

Keeping up to date on not only current bills and legislation, but also who is sponsoring, what is the landscape, who do we need to contract to get our voice heard, that's been huge for us because a lot of these decisions are made while we're busy taking care of patients.

Dr. Phillip Pounders

Little Rock, Arkansas

Physician-led state policy committees

Our state policy committees, led by physicians and facilitated by Aledade staff, provide a platform to empower and elevate the voices of independent and community-based primary care clinicians. The committees allow space for the clinicians to share their stories and data that centers their needs in preventive and value-driven care.

Committees meet regularly and comprise staff members across Aledade Accountable Care Organization (ACO) member practices, including physicians, nurses and office managers eager to remain informed and engaged in state policy development. Areas of advocacy and education include shaping the future of value-based care, primary care investment (focusing on mandated minimum primary care spend), combatting workforce shortages, telehealth, administrative burden reform and Medicaid policies including expansion, among others.