(This story was updated at 1:30 p.m. ET.)
Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Elliot Health System and Frisbie Memorial Hospital will jointly own a new company with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care that will share clinical information and financial risk for 80,000 New Hampshire residents.
The joint venture, called Benevera Health, will bring together financial and clinical data to give the partner providers access to analytics that can help them manage care for all of the New Hampshire members in Harvard Pilgrim's fully insured plans.
The organizations' executives said Monday that they would make significant investments in technology to support the effort. Premiums for Harvard Pilgrim members will be 4% lower than they would have been without the venture, they said.
“Our new company is a game changer,” Harvard Pilgrim CEO Eric Schultz said in a news release. “The goal is to vastly improve patient care in New Hampshire by injecting personnel and new technology that will provide doctors and other clinicians with the information they need to help their patients make the best choices about their healthcare.
More providers could be joining the venture, officials said.
Harvard Pilgrim is in talks with seven other hospitals about being included in the venture, said Rick Weisblatt, chief of innovation and strategy at Harvard Pilgrim.
The ongoing discussions revolve around what the providers' capital contribution would be, what the budget would be and how governance would work. Harvard is seeking more hospitals through this calendar year, and he expects providers to decide by mid-November.
The joint venture is aiming to involve a broad coalition of hospitals for the company, Weisblatt said.
