N.J. health system to offer Medicaid plan, sell insurance on exchange

A for-profit company that owns three hospitals in New Jersey said that it has formed a health system and is planning to offer a Medicaid plan and sell insurance on the state exchange about to launch under the healthcare reform law.

The Jersey City, N.J.-based company, previously called Hudson Holdco, has acquired the 170-bed Bayonne Medical Center, the 381-bed Christ Hospital in Jersey City and the 204-bed Hoboken University Medical Center in recent years.

The new system, rebranded CarePoint Health, will include hospitals, primary care and preventative health centers, insurance plans, and a network of roughly 1,000 physicians, according to a news release.

“By bringing together the resources of three great hospitals and the area's leading physicians, we can offer patients what we call '360 degrees of care' from the hospital to the doctor's office to the patient's home,” CarePoint Health spokesman Spencer Baretz said in a news release. “Using new models of delivery, including new technologies, we can ensure that patients are treated in a fully collaborative fashion with exceptional, personalized outcomes.”

CarePoint Health currently offers a Medicare Advantage plan and an institutional special needs plan.

Mark Spektor, president and CEO of Bayonne Medical Center, said in an interview that CarePoint filed an application and letter of intent to sell an insurance plan on the state’s healthcare exchange, starting in 2014, and plans to enter the Medicaid market in July.

Spektor noted that Hudson County has the largest number of uninsured and underinsured people in New Jersey. Healthcare services in the country are also fragmented, which has created a need for clinical integration, he said.

“Patients may not get the continuity of care that they require,” Spektor said.

Hudson Holdco grew out of the 2008 acquisition of Bayonne Medical Center, then in bankruptcy, by a group of investors.

The company and Prime Healthcare Services, a for-profit hospital operator based in Ontario, Calif., have each announced plans to acquire hospitals in New Jersey. In some instances, the companies pursued bids for the same hospitals.

Prime is gearing up to purchase its third hospital in New Jersey—St. Clare’s Health System, a Denville, N.J.-based operator of three hospitals that is owned by Catholic Health Initiatives. The company’s other two hospital acquisitions are pending.

Catholic Health Initiatives had previously made an agreement to sell St. Clare’s to the Ascension Health Care Network, a for-profit venture between Ascension Health Alliance and Oak Hill Capital Partners. The deal fell apart last year.

In a news release, CHI said that it had discussions with a number of buyers, including Catholic, not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, according to a Prime spokeswoman.

The deal is expected to close by early fall.

Follow Jaimy Lee on Twitter: @MHjlee