Atlantic Health collaborates to create new health care consortium

Six New Jersey-based health care providers, led by Atlantic Health System, have collaborated to form Healthcare Transformation Consortium, a third-party health care provider that will service the combined 50,000 employees of each system, which, separately, manage self-funded health care plans.Six New Jersey-based health care providers, including Atlantic Health System, have collaborated to form Healthcare Transformation Consortium, a third-party health care provider that will service the combined 50,000 employees of each system, which, separately, manage self-funded health care plans.

Aside from Atlantic, the other partners are some of the state’s largest independent healthcare systems: St. JOspeh’s Healthcare  CentraState Healthcare System, St. Joseph’s Health, Holy Name Medical Center, Hunterdon Healthcare and Saint Peter’s Healthcare System.

HTC is still in the early stages of development, and its goal will be to reduce administrative fees, and “select an insurance carrier that is open to development of a unique product that can be replicated by health systems in other regions,” according to an announcement.

Kevin Joyce, vice president of insurance networks for Atlantic Health, said in a written statement that each of HTC’s members have similar approaches to providing health care to its employees, and therefore, HTC was a natural progression.

“We need to take the lead in improving the quality and affordability of care,” Joyce said. “The model developed by HTC can be shared locally with other self-insured employers and replicated nationally. By working closely with like-minded organizations, we can share best practices, learn from one another, and lead the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care, using our own benefit plans as proving grounds.”

A spokesperson for Atlantic Health said that the consortium was in the planning stages well before the announcement from Berkshire Hathaway, JPMorgan and Amazon  earlier this week to create a company dedicated to offering a broad array of health care services for their employees, emphasizing top-quality care over profit-making. Details of that plan are still being hashed out.

“This endeavor will enhance access to quality healthcare for our employees and their families while reducing overall costs,” said Kevin Slavin, CEO, St. Joseph’s Health. “The collaboration among these leading, independent health systems is a tangible example of our ability to transform healthcare in New Jersey.”