HealthPartners and Park Nicollet Health Care announced that their boards of directors have signed an agreement to combine the two non-profits to create a comprehensive integrated health system and associated health plan to serve the Twin Cities region and parts of western Wisconsin.
When completed, the combined organization will comprise a 1,500 physician multispecialty group that combines the Park Nicollet family of specialty care facilities with HealthPartners network, which consists of 70 medical and dental clinics and four hospitals in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It would become the second largest healthcare system in Minnesota, behind the Mayo Clinic.
By merging, the two entities hope to improve the coordination of care, awhile creating stronger links between care and insurance in an effort to reduce costs and improve healthcare quality. Park Nicollet is one of 32 pioneer accountable care organizations named by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and HealthPartners operates a health plan that counts nearly 1.4 million dental and health plan members.
“HealthPartners and Park Nicollet share the same mission: making people healthier, making healthcare more affordable and creating the best possible experience for our patients and members,” said Mary Brainerd, HealthPartners president and CEO, in a press release. “Together, we’ll be better able to pursue this mission across our region for the benefit of the people we serve.”
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Because the organizations have such a strong and well-recognized presence in the market, both will continue to operate under their existing names and patients and plan members will continue to interact with their providers and health plan as they have before. The intention though is for the two to work together and over time introduce a deeper set of coordinated care and plan coverage as the two refine their coordinated care approach.
“Park Nicollet and HealthPartners are two of the strongest local collaborators in support of our common goal of improving access to high-quality, compassionate care for people in the Twin Cities,” said David Abelson, MD, president and CEO, Park Nicollet in a prepared statement. “In many ways, we’ve shown what’s possible when healthcare organizations work together to put people first. By combining our organizations, we’ll take that collaborative spirit much further, creating new potential for meeting the changing needs of our community at this important time in healthcare.”
Plans call for the combined entity to be governed by a board of directors comprising consumers from the local market. Top management will stay on to oversee the new organization, with Brainerd assuming the position of CEO, while Abelson will lead and managed the new care delivery system, to be named the Park Nicollet HealthPartners Care Group.
The deal also highlights a growing trend in the healthcare market: providers and health plans combining in order to work together more closely to manage the health of populations.
“HealthPartners is first and foremost an insurance company,” said Steve Parente, a healthcare economist at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, in a StarTribune report. “This gives them more of a diversity play than any insurance company in town. It reflects a broader national trend where insurance companies are taking the lead position to determine how these integrations will occur.”
Pending regulatory review, the closing is expected to be effective Jan. 1, 2013. The combined operations will include Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, four HealthPartners hospitals – Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, Hudson Hospital in Hudson, Wis., and Westfields Hospital in New Richmond, Wis. – and a comprehensive system of medical and dental clinics across the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. This system will be integrated with the HealthPartners health plan, which serves more than 1.4 million medical and dental members nationwide.