The researchers identified health care providers who share a common patient population (accountable care teams), using a technique known as “network methodology.” These teams could serve as a medical home for their patients. If successful, the process of identifying accountable groups of providers could also support value-based purchasing. The researchers employed the network methodology to identify provider “clusters” – those who are densely interconnected through serving a common patient population, in this case disabled Medicaid patients in Minnesota. They then (1) assessed the “fit” of the clustering with observations about care organization in Minnesota, and (2) developed measures of cluster cohesiveness. The objective of the project was to introduce a new technology for identifying accountable groups of providers that could be the basis of medical homes/care teams and inform efforts to implement value-based purchasing of health care.