Five Maryland-based health systems plan to form a non-ownership alliance to strengthen their performance under the state's global budget reimbursement system.
Members of the Advanced Health Collaborative will share best practices and explore opportunities to reduce costs by investing in care-management infrastructure. The state's new all-payer model, in which hospitals receive a predetermined reimbursement for care based on the size of the populations they serve, is a driving force for the collaboration.
The systems involved in AHC, which comprise 10 hospitals altogether, are: Adventist HealthCare, Gaithersburg; LifeBridge Health and Mercy Health Services, both in Baltimore; Peninsula Regional Health System, Salisbury; and Trivergent Health Alliance. Trivergent encompasses Frederick (Md.) Regional Health System; Meritus Health, Hagerstown; and Western Maryland Health System, Cumberland.
“What we're doing … is investing in care-management infrastructure,” said Robb Cohen, CEO of the new collaborative. “It gives everyone access to lower costs and best practices.”
