The Mayo Clinic, one of the most recognized names in health care, is continuing its push into Illinois with a new affiliation with OSF HealthCare, the fourth-largest health care provider in the state.
The partnership, announced Friday, comes about six months after Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo announced a similar arrangement with NorthShore Univeristy HealthSystem, which operates four hospitals in Chicago’s northern suburbs.
OSF, which operates seven hospitals in Illinois and one in Michigan, is owned and operated by The Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis. The health system stretches from the Wisconsin border to near Springfield, and includes acute-care medical centers in Rockford and Peoria.
Its affiliation with Mayo, which began Friday, will give its physicians access to Mayo specialists and research. OSF also will gain access in June to an electronic portal that will enabled so-called eConsults, which will initially focus on four specialties: cancer, neurology, gastrointestinal disease and cardiovascular cases. The affiliation also allows for OSF patients faster access to appointments at the Mayo Clinic, known worldwide for its treatment of presidents, foreign heads of state and royalty.
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Financial terms of the pact were not disclosed. The one-year, renewable agreement is Mayo’s 16th affiliation as part of its Mayo Clinic Care Network, a subscription-based model that launched in 2011, said Dr. David Hayes, the network’s medical director.
OSF, which had 2012 net patient revenue of about $2.3 billion, will be able to use the services across its organization, which employs roughly 14,000 people in more than 90 locations throughout Illinois. The system also is in talks to acquire another hospital in Kewanee, said Kevin Schoeplein, OSF’s chief executive.
“Mayo is a world-class organization, and like OSF, they have great clinical skills, people and capabilities,” Schoeplein said. “We didn’t do this because of brand; we really, truly did this because we believe this collaborative arrangement brings together the strengths of both organizations … for the primary benefit of our patients.”
The two systems have been in talks for about two years on an affiliation.
Though OSF operates mostly on the fringes of the hyper-competitive Chicago market, it has competitors in a majority of its smaller markets. Its affiliation with Mayo could help fortify its brand in those markets, giving it an advantage over competitors head of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the 2010 health care overhaul law.
The law is fueling a seismic shift toward a model where physician teams and health systems are paid to care for groups of patients, initially through arrangements called Accountable Care Organizations, or ACOs. OSF operates one of the first ACOs approved by the federal government for Medicare patients.
Under such models, doctors and health systems are paid based in part on quality.
“It’s all about the value equation,” Hayes said.
For OSF, adding Mayo’s expertise will help manage some of the most complex cases its hospitals and providers see.
“We appreciate the world we’re moving into. We’re transforming,” Schoeplein said. “In the future, it’s going to be important to be able to manage the health and well-being of a population of patients.”
The Mayo pact, he said, “is another opportunity for us to accelerate our ability to care for patients and improve.”
Date: April 19, 2013
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