Regional News/Northeast: New identity

A for-profit company that owns three hospitals in New Jersey unveiled a new identity as an integrated health system with plans to offer a Medicaid plan and sell insurance on the state exchange about to launch under the healthcare reform law.

In recent years, the Jersey City, N.J.-based company, doing business as Hudson Holdco, acquired 170-bed Bayonne (N.J.) Medical Center, 381-bed Christ Hospital in Jersey City and 204-bed Hoboken (N.J.) University Medical Center.

The system, rebranded CarePoint Health, will include hospitals, primary-care and preventive health centers, insurance plans and a network of about 1,000 physicians.

“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 now 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, and healthcare services in the county are fragmented, which has created a need for clinical integration. “Patients may not get the continuity of care that they require,” he said.

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

Both Hudson and Prime Healthcare Services, a for-profit hospital operator based in Ontario, Calif., have been working to acquire New Jersey hospitals, in some instances bidding on the same ones. In 2011, Hudson made a play for Christ Hospital, although the hospital had already accepted an offer from Prime. Three months later, a judge approved Hudson's offer to buy Christ Hospital out of bankruptcy after Prime withdrew its offer, citing resistance from some local officials opposed to the out-of-state buyer.

Prime, though, beat out Hudson for St. Clare's Health System, a four-campus hospital based in Denville, N.J., that's part of Catholic Health Initiatives. Last week, Prime announced a deal, expected to close by early fall, to acquire St. Clare's for an undisclosed sum. The company has two other New Jersey hospital acquisitions pending.

Catholic Health Initiatives previously agreed to sell St. Clare's to the Ascension Health Care Network, a for-profit venture between Ascension Health Alliance and Oak Hill Capital Partners.

In a news release, CHI said that it had discussions with a number of buyers, including Catholic, not-for-profit and for-profit organizations.

Follow Jaimy Lee on Twitter: @MHjlee