Clinical Best Practices
Value Network has developed standards of care designed to strengthen service delivery and improve health outcomes across the Network.
Our Work
Turning Collaboration
Into Better Health
Outcomes
Value Network brings together clinical expertise, quality improvement, data analytics, payer partnerships, and regional collaboration to strengthen care across Western New York.
Our whole-person approach is designed to close gaps in care, improve quality, and support better outcomes across behavioral, physical, and social health.
Clinical Integration
Connecting Behavioral, Physical, and Social Health
Value Network's clinical strategy strengthens collaboration between behavioral and physical health providers while addressing the social factors that influence an individual's health.
Through shared standards of care and clinical best practices, Partners are better equipped to coordinate services, close care gaps, and support the whole person.
Where we focus:
Social Drivers of Health
Partners screen for, refer to, and document the needs that shape health outside the clinic — housing, food, transportation, and more — through collaborative payer initiatives.
Physical Health Integration
Value Network promotes stronger collaboration between behavioral and physical healthcare providers to improve engagement and outcomes.
Quality Improvement
Turning Data and Best Practices Into Better Care
Value Network supports Partners through one-on-one, small-group, and network-wide quality improvement initiatives.
Our team helps organizations develop quality improvement plans, identify and monitor gaps in care, and strengthen their understanding of the metrics, priorities, and tools that drive meaningful improvement.
Quality Improvement Support
Practical guidance to help Partners strengthen QI plans and monitor care gaps through individual consultations and group learning sessions. Specialized tools, resources, and educational materials offer additional insights to support optimal performance and continuous improvement.
Quality Improvement Training
Learning opportunities focused on the metrics, tools, and priority areas that support continuous improvement.
Data Analytics
Transforming Data Into Actionable Insight
Value Network partners with regional payers, health information exchanges, and New York State data providers to deliver the information Partners need to succeed in value-based care contracts and collaborative initiatives. By integrating physical, behavioral, and social care data, Value Network helps Partners gain a comprehensive view of each individual and support whole-person care.
Our dashboards and reports bring together information
including:
Hospital admission, discharge, and transfer alerts
Behavioral and physical health conditions
High-cost and high-risk members
Closing gaps in care
Total
cost-of-care
information
Emergency department and inpatient utilization
Value-Based Payment Arrangements
Aligning Better Care With Better Outcomes
Value Network IPA, LLC has secured several value-based payment arrangements with managed care organizations across Western New York.
These partnerships align financial incentives with measurable improvements in quality, utilization, and total cost of care—helping Partners focus on the outcomes that matter most.
HEDIS
Metrics
Identifying priority areas aligned with national and state quality standards.
Utilization
Metrics
Reducing unnecessary emergency department visits and inpatient stays through clinical best practices and standards of care.
Total
Cost of Care
Identifying high-risk, high-cost members and coordinating targeted strategies to improve outcomes while reducing overall costs.
Social Drivers
of Health
Encouraging Partners to screen, refer, and document social needs through collaborative payer initiatives.
6 years
Of value-based contracting with managed care organizations.
$2.86 M
Earned and distributed to our Partners through value-based payment contracts, 2020–2025
“Without Value Network, OLV wouldn't have this opportunity, so I am forever grateful.”
Value-Based Care in Action
See how Value Network and Highmark BCBS of WNY are working together through an innovative value-based payment partnership.
Video transcript: Value Network and Highmark BCBS of WNY: value-based care in action
Value Network and Highmark BCBS of WNY: An Innovative VBP Partnership
Speaker: Andrea J. Wanat, Chief Executive Officer, Value Network
This is a historical recording shared by Value Network in December 2023. Partner counts and other statements reflect the time of the recording.
Value Network is a behavioral healthcare collaborative covering the eight counties in Western New York. And what we do is we work with over 62 partners. And what the Value Network team provides to these partners are data visualizations, clinical best practices, grant opportunities and contracting opportunities, really enhanced services to those partners so that they can ultimately provide the best care possible for the patients they serve throughout Western New York.
We came to Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and we brainstorm some ways that we could partner. We came up with a very innovative value-based contracting opportunity that was the first of its kind in New York State. Ultimately the collaboration between Highmark and Value Network, it will expand and be transformative across the system, really setting the standards for the future of healthcare savings and healthcare best practices.
Visual context
Andrea J. Wanat speaks to camera. The video also shows Value Network's Network and Affiliate Partner slides, its mission statement, and its website. The mission slide reads: "Our mission is simple: to design and implement a health service delivery system that improves the quality, cost effectiveness, and overall experience of care in Western New York."
Source
Value Network's public LinkedIn post and supplied transcript
Punctuation and capitalization have been normalized, and the automatic transcript's "Valley Network" corrected to "Value Network."
Creating Opportunities Through Collaboration
Regional Collaborations:
Grants & Educational Efforts
Value Network brings Partners together around professional development, shared learning, and regional initiatives that strengthen behavioral healthcare across Western New York.
We also provide high-quality educational opportunities on topics relevant to our Partners, with many trainings offered at no cost or at reduced rates to members.
Collaborative Grants
Providing funding and collaborative opportunities for the Network.
Networking Efforts
Bringing organizations together to share ideas and expertise and participate in regional initiatives.
Educational Opportunities
Providing accessible training and professional development designed around Partner needs.
$3.1M annually
NYS OASAS State Opioid Response funding across Western New York, in collaboration with 16 Value Network Partners
$280K
Findhelp providing technical assistance and project management to support social care interventions and training for two regional Social Care Networks.
$200K
Networkwide Data Analytics/QI support from the Peter & Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation.
A Behavioral Health Grant from Fidelis Care
Andrea J. Wanat and Fidelis Care’s Jennifer Lyons on the behavioral health grant supporting Value Network Partners.
“We are deeply grateful to Fidelis Care for honoring Value Network Inc. with this award. This funding strengthens
our ability to work alongside our partners to better integrate behavioral and medical health care across the Western
New York community and helps ensure that individuals identified with substance use disorder are connected to needed
care and support as quickly as possible.”
- Andrea J. Wanat, CEO
Value Network Inc. & Value Network IPA.
Video transcript: Value Network and Fidelis Care on the behavioral health grant
[Opening visual: Andrea J. Wanat and Jennifer Lyons hold a $20,000 check from Fidelis Care to Value Network, dated July 22, 2026.]
[On-screen text: Fidelis Care presented a $20,000 behavioral health grant to Value Network, Erie County.]
Andrea J. Wanat, CEO, Value Network:
This project, it's a substance use alert diagnosis project. So, what it will do, it will really help individuals in the Western New York community to get the care that they need in a timely fashion. Thank you so much to Fidelis Care. We look forward to this collaboration.
Jennifer Lyons, Sales and Marketing Director, Fidelis Care:
Fidelis Care is able to have a proactive role in giving back to the community and helping support services and programs that are helping improve access and improve behavioral health outcomes.
[Visuals during the interviews show the office entrance, the grant check, and Andrea J. Wanat and Jennifer Lyons talking at a table.]
[Closing card: Here for your health. Fidelis Care. 1-888-FIDELIS - https://fideliscare.org]
Innovations in Behavioral
Health Demonstration Project
Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
- MI
- NY
- SC
Helping Shape the Future of Integrated Behavioral Healthcare
New York State is one of three states selected to participate in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Innovations in Behavioral Health Demonstration Project.
Value Network and Western New York were chosen by New York State to collaborate on this eight-year initiative. We're working with OMH and OASAS leadership on planning and the recruitment of participating Partners, and supporting the development of an innovative alternative payment model.
Purpose
Improve the quality of care and behavioral and physical health outcomes for adults enrolled in Managed Medicaid and Medicare with moderate to severe mental health conditions and substance use disorders.
Goal
Create innovative value-based payment opportunities that bring together physical health, behavioral health, and social care.