Building What Health Care Needs but Doesn’t Have
Some problems in U.S. health care persist because no one has built what it takes to solve them, including unenforced parity laws, fragmented safety nets, payment models that reward the wrong work, and more. The Foundry exists to address those problems. Third Horizon finds the structural failures the market has left undone, aligns the mission-driven partners willing to take them on and builds what the work requires: measurement tools, payment models, coalition infrastructure, and first-of-their-kind platforms. The Foundry is where Third Horizon does its most ambitious work.
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Mental Health Parity Index (MHPI)
The Mental Health Parity Act promised equal access to behavioral health care. For over fifteen years it has been effectively unenforceable because no mechanism existed to measure parity. The MHPI changes that, making quantitative parity measurement possible for the first time.
KEY CAPABILITIES
- Measures reimbursement parity (behavioral health vs. physical health rates using normalized units) and access parity (in-network behavioral health provider availability vs. physical health in the same geography)
- Transforms price transparency disclosures into validated, plan-specific parity scores—turning an unenforceable law into one backed by data
- Co-developed with The Kennedy Forum and the American Medical Association—accessible as a public utility, not locked behind a paywall
- Piloted in Illinois with an open-source data visualization application; national deployment in April 2026
Launch the national Mental Health Parity Index → ×ProvidersPublic SectorCommunity-Based OrganizationsPolicymakers
Safety Net Moonshot Initiative
America's urban safety nets serve the most vulnerable through institutions never designed to function as a system. The Safety Net Moonshot provides a comprehensive framework for restructuring fragmented systems into coordinated, financially sustainable infrastructure — so communities that depend on the safety net can actually rely on it.
KEY CAPABILITIES
- Developed through the Chicago Safety Net Moonshot Initiative—a state-level effort in Illinois restructuring how safety-net hospitals serving low-income, Medicaid, and uninsured communities in Black and Brown neighborhoods are funded and operated; designed as a replicable blueprint for fragmented safety nets nationwide
- Transformation framework including asset reallocation, sustainable payment design, and capital formation strategies
- Coordinates public, nonprofit, and private stakeholders around shared infrastructure rather than competition for scarce resources
- Designed for measurable impact: better access, fewer coverage gaps, and earlier connection to the right care before crisis demands the most expensive intervention
Learn more about the Chicago Safety Net Moonshot → ×PayersProvidersPublic Sector
Addiction Recovery Medical Home Alternative Payment Model (ARMH-APM)
Fee-for-service reimbursement treats addiction as an acute event. The ARMH-APM is the first bundled payment model designed to align financial incentives with sustained recovery, not episodic billing — recognizing what the science has long established: addiction is a chronic condition requiring years of coordinated support.
KEY CAPABILITIES
- Multi-year episode-based payment replacing fragmented billing with a single, accountable framework for sustained recovery
- Quality metrics tied to recovery milestones—not service volume—so providers are rewarded for outcomes that matter to patients and communities
- Integrated Treatment and Recovery Network (ITRN) connecting peer recovery coaches, care coordinators, primary care physicians, and addiction specialists around the patient
- Built through an 18-month cross-sector collaboration with the Alliance for Addiction Payment Reform, including AHA, HFMA, Duke Margolis, The Kennedy Forum, NCQA, Anthem, Intermountain, and 30+ organizations
- Released as a public good; principles deployed by Indiana, Oregon, New York, and private market payers and treatment centers
Learn more about the ARMH-APM →