Cooper University Health Care, a New Jersey hospital system with 100 outpatient care offices, has agreed to acquire a 20 percent stake in AmeriHealth New Jersey, a subsidiary insurer of Independence Blue Cross, to create a more coordinated model to improve quality and lower costs.
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The financial terms of the business venture were not disclosed, but Cooper has the option to purchase additional equity at a later point in time, said Eli Winkler, senior vice president for growth and development at Camden-based Cooper University Health Care, in a tele-briefing with reporters on Wednesday.
"The partnership is intended to transform healthcare in our region and become more patient-based than ever," he said on the phone call.
Under the partnership, Cooper will include a patient-centered medical home in its primary care provider offices as part of an accountable care model, Winkler said. It already has started an employee-centered medical home with its own employees, in which primary care physicians work collaboratively with specialists, labs, imaging and others to coordinate and integrate care, with a focus on management of chronic conditions.
"The plan is to offer products that in the near future will attract a wider patient base," he said at the briefing.
In the health reform environment, more providers and insurers are beginning to align in order to better facilitate bundled payments for coordinated treatment of episodes of care and away from the fee-for-service model.
Cooper and AmeriHealth will offer an expanded set of co-branded insurance plans to consumers and employers in southern New Jersey, including insured, self-insured and Medicare products, and emphasizing affordability and quality care, said Judith Roman, president and CEO of AmeriHealth New Jersey, which has 210,000 policyholders in the state.
"We will market those products focusing on those who do not have insurance today," she said.
The goals of the partnership are to improve patient outcomes and member satisfaction and reduce unnecessary inpatient and emergency department utilizations, Roman said at the briefing and in a press release.
The partnership will drive joint accountability in higher quality, accessible healthcare and lower costs for New Jersey residents, Roman said.
"What better way to provide higher quality care than through one organized delivery system that aligns incentives among the hospitals, physicians and the health plans," she said. The preferred provider list of the co-branded plans could be enlarged if other health systems join the collaboration, Roman said.
AmeriHealth New Jersey is one of five plans in New Jersey participating in the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center. It promotes collaboration between public and private payers to strengthen primary care and offers incentives to better coordinate care for their patients.