Can health care delivery models be value-based and affordable? Emily Brower, a seasoned health care professional and leader of the National Association of Accountable Care Organizations (NAACOS), is confident that the answer is yes.

Working collaboratively with health care systems, providers and insurance companies throughout her career inspired Brower to take a CEO role in an organization to which she’s long contributed. Previously a NAACOS board member, Brower decided to seek the CEO position largely based on timing.

“Working with an organization transitioning to its second CEO is incredibly engaging. I’m really enjoying the role, even more than I expected,” she said.

Leading from passion

Brower didn’t originally aspire to become an association CEO. Her pursuit of the position was sparked by a passion for the organization’s work.

“Even though I came with a finance background, I had always been very involved in the clinical operations, close to the doctors and nurse practitioners and close to the patients. So, if you asked me if I was going to do something different in my career, it would have been going back to being closer to patients,” she said.

But after serving on NAACOS’s board and learning about the unexpected death of Jeff Micklos — who was set to take the reins from Clif Gaus, the association’s first CEO — Brower decided to throw her hat into the ring to succeed him.

“I was serving as chair, and I had been working very closely with him on his onboarding and implementation of the strategic plan that we had all developed, and it was a very exciting time thinking about the future of the organization under Jeff’s leadership,” she said.

Founded in 2012, NAACOS is a member-led and member-governed nonprofit of more than 460 accountable care organizations and value-based care entities in Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurance working on behalf of physicians, health systems and other providers across the nation.

A series of fortunate events

Brower began her career in health care in the 1990s, through what she called a “wonderful series of fortunate events” that included getting connected with Urban Medical Group in Boston, a nonprofit primary care practice that specialized in primary care for elderly and chronically ill patients. She was there for 15 years, holding various leadership roles including chief operating officer.

“Their leaders and I had enough of an inkling about some of these early demonstrations in total cost of care management,” she said. “These were the very early days of moving from fee-for-service to managing total cost of care, when the idea that providers, as opposed to payers or plans, could take accountability for total cost of care and clinical outcomes.”

At Urban Medical Group, Brower discovered her passion for helping make care accessible for underserved populations. The practice’s goal was to “have a better financial model that would be a way to fund the work that we do with the most complex populations, which we were basically funding by taking very modest salaries,” she said.

“The fee-for-service model didn’t really pay for what they were doing, which was taking care of people in their home, in nursing homes, and in congregate housing — before assisted living.”

Starting from common ground

Prior to becoming president and CEO at NAACOS, Brower served as senior vice president of clinical integration and physician services for Trinity Health in Livonia, Michigan, providing leadership and strategic direction about accountable health care. At Atrius Health in Newton, Massachusetts, she served as vice president of population health.

Working with Atrius Health was an eye-opening experience for Brower. Her work there entailed “six groups coming together — each with their own board, service area, and providers — working on common ground in their commitment to improve clinical outcomes and the experience of care for people,” she said.

“Being able to draw on that at NAACOS to think about how we prioritize our work, how we help our members learn from each other, it all comes back to that.”

One thing Brower is acclimating to in her first-time CEO role is delegation, especially when it comes to operations.

“Sometimes I have to sit on my hands. I must intentionally not try and solve the problem, because someone around me probably has a better solution,” she said. “They know the organization, and most of the time my job really isn’t to solve the problem at hand. I have to recognize that somebody else can solve it and should.”

To those looking to secure a leadership role, Brower says, “You don’t have to be somebody else. You may need to build some muscles that you haven’t, that aren’t as well developed because they don’t get the use, but they’re there.”