A Note from Valley Preferred Leadership

From the Desks of John Stoeckle, MD, CHQS, Medical Director and Dan Bair, Executive Director of Valley Preferred

As we take a retrospective look at 2025 and an optimistic view toward 2026, we are pleased with all that we have accomplished at Valley Preferred over the past year. Although it has been a year of substantial transition following the merger of Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) with Jefferson Health, we are excited to be part of the larger Jefferson Population Health Enterprise and to gain access to its additional value-based experience and expertise. This merger also brings scale, and we are energized by the opportunity to join Jefferson Health in a shared partnership with the American Medical Association (AMA) for 2026, while continuing to preserve all the benefits our members currently enjoy. Individual physicians will maintain access to complimentary AMA membership and CME opportunities, and we will continue leveraging the AMA’s benchmarking tools to identify opportunities for advancing wellness across both our independent and employed colleagues.

The Achieving Clinical Excellence® (ACE) Incentive Plan remains central to our collaborative quality efforts, and significant progress was made in 2025. Beginning in 2026, primary care providers will benefit from a streamlined and prioritized set of metrics, enabling sharper focus on the areas that matter most. Specialists will continue to realize advantages through shared fee-for-service contracting opportunities and delegated credentialing with insurance payers. All members will retain access to participation benefits, including the well-being incentive, CME programming, and the strength of a peer community committed to excellence.

Our quality initiatives are gaining unprecedented engagement from independent and aligned clinicians alike, and our strong performance illustrates that collaboration. In the coming year, we will build upon this momentum and deepen clinical integration in key areas such as access, care coordination, transitions of care, and reducing readmissions.