Leader
Leaders lead by example…
In 1999, Dr. Andrew Carroll graduated residency from Kingston, New York, at the Mid-Hudson Family Practice Residency. This unopposed rural Family Medicine residency offered the education of full-scope Family Medicine at both a community and Catholic hospital, and a rural community health clinic. Rotations in NICU were performed at Westchester County Medical Center. The rest were done right there, with education provided by Family Medicine physicians.
He then went to be Medical Director of the Glendale Family Health Center as his first position out of Residency for the Maricopa County Hospital system (much to his surprise, as there was never a mention of a Medical Director position). After a year, he once again assumed the leadership position closer to home as Medical Director of the Chandler Family Health Center. It was there that he helped launch the adoption of an Electronic Medical Record at the healthcare system, as well as changing the office flow at the Health Center to Open Access Scheduling, increasing the availability of Physicians to the patients, and dropping the no-show rate from 40% to less than 5% almost immediately.
In 2003, frustrated with the limitations of the care of indigent and undocumented individuals at a County healthcare system, Dr. Carroll started Renaissance Family Medical Care, with the core intention of providing affordable healthcare services to those ineligible for government or work-based healthcare insurance, or were undocumented individuals simply seeking affordable and accessible healthcare. Dr. Carroll and his medical clinicians and staff speak Spanish fluently, and Dr. Carroll also speaks Vietnamese, once again being able to reach specific marginalized communities in the East Valley of Phoenix Metro.
In 2006, Dr. Carroll added a second branch in rural Maricopa, Arizona, serving the needs of patients in this community 25 miles from his primary clinic, as well as 25 miles away from the nearest hospital. The challenges of the housing crisis in 2008 punctuated the operations of this clinic, and many of these patients lost their jobs and their insurance, and nearly their homes. The availability of low-cost and comprehensive healthcare in their communities became a lifeline for many in Maricopa, and the clinic continued despite a challenging financial environment. This branch was closed in 2014, succumbing to the direct challenges of a large hospital system clinic overtaking and assuming the operations of that clinic.
Over the years Renaissance Family Medical Care became Renaissance Medical Group, and then, with the addition of Behavioral Services in 2014, became Atembis LLC. The practice, a vanguard private integrated and embedded clinic, offers medical and behavioral services at two clinic sites, one in Chandler and one in Flagstaff, started in 2018. Dr. Carroll used his connections in the community to secure contracts under a single Tax ID, allowing for patients to maximize their full scope health benefits and receive mental health and physical health services at one facility.
From March 2017 to October 2019, Dr. Carroll served as Chief Medical Officer for Change Healthcare’s Value-Based care program, contracted with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona. Through this program, contracted independent primary care physicians received outside assistance and data that helped to maximize their care of all patients, but particularly those at identified high risk for bad outcomes and overutilization. The program generated $6 million in savings in its first full year of operation, and nearly the same in its second year. Dr. Carroll developed a mathematical formula and algorithm which helped identify high-risk patients for care coordination outreach, significantly reducing Emergency Room and hospitalization utilization, and positively affecting their outcomes as well as the cost of care.
At the Arizona Academy of Family Physicians, Dr. Carroll served as:
2011-2013 - Treasurer
2013-2014 - President-Elect
2014-2015 - President
2015 - 2016 - Immediate Past-President
He has served as Alternate-Delegate and then Delegate to the Congress of Delegates for the AAFP nearly consistently from 2010 - 2019, when he was then elected to the Board of Directors.
In early 2020, a hence unnamed pandemic struck American shores. What came to be known as Covid19 ravaged the American Healthcare system, particularly in Arizona, which at one point had the highest per-capita case rate in the world. Dr. Carroll pivoted Atembis LLC late in March, after the passage of an Executive Order requiring parity for payment for Telehealth services, using the platforms already in use for his behavioral team’s Telehealth visits, to nearly fully virtual so that patients could continue receiving longitudinal medical services, as well as providing remote services for Covid patients.
During this crisis, he became a media regular on all of the local channels, as well as national media, including MSNBC, CNN, Good Morning America, ABC Nightly News, and CBS Evening News, providing public information on Covid19, vaccination programs, public health mitigation measures, and general education. Dr. Carroll became a familiar and easily accessible Family Physician, fighting on the frontlines for his patients as well as his community.
Dr. Carroll believes that the measure of a leader is one who not only lives the struggle, but also is not afraid to do what is right, even when challenged by the status quo. This is demonstrated in his ability to work with leaders at payer companies to help them understand both the value and importance of an integrated medical-behavioral primary care facility. By listening to his patients, his peers, his mentors, and his challengers, he works to develop solutions in the best interests of all parties and then lives the solution through demonstration, example, and execution.
