Aetna and Texas Health Resources Establish New Partnership in North Texas

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Texas Health Resources announced the creation of a jointly owned health plan company that will focus on improving quality, affordability and the overall consumer experience. By combining Texas Health's high-quality providers and investment in population health management with Aetna's health plan expertise, care management capabilities and analytical insights, employers and consumers in North Texas will benefit from more affordable, high-quality and better-coordinated care (see also Aetna).

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The partnership between Aetna and Texas Health is the first of its kind in North Texas to fully align the incentives and capabilities of a national insurer and major health system. By sharing ownership and accountability equally, the new health plan will focus on the consumer experience by combining fully integrated care teams, health insurance benefits and administrative services to eliminate redundancies of care and to reduce administrative hassles.

"Our joint venture with Texas Health represents two leading health care organizations coming together to fundamentally improve and streamline the health care experience for individuals and employers in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex," said Gary Loveman, Ph.D., executive vice president of Aetna and president of Consumer Health and Services. "We will drive a focus on better health and wellness through coordinated care, proactive outreach and evidence-based clinical approaches for members."

"Over the past several years, the American health care landscape has begun to change, with increasing costs and quality pressures creating demand from employers and consumers for a new health care economy," said Barclay E. Berdan, FACHE, chief executive officer of Texas Health Resources. "This partnership aligns our two organizations' commitment to build more sustainable value-based models of care, which will help to deliver better outcomes and lower costs, while providing an unmatched patient and provider experience. It's what consumers expect of us in this new economy and, frankly, what we expect of ourselves."

New fully-insured and self-insured commercial products will be offered to employers and consumers in 14 counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, including Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Hood, Hunt, Johnson, Kaufman, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Tarrant and Wise counties, and are anticipated to be available on Jan. 1, 2017, pending regulatory approval.

The new partnership will feature the Southwestern Health Resources network as its core, which includes more than 500 physicians in Texas Health's employed physician group, Texas Health Physicians Group (THPG). Texas Health's 69 outpatient facilities include surgery centers, fitness centers, imaging centers and more than 250 other community access points. Its hospitals include 16 acute-care facilities, along with six short-stay, one transitional care and two rehabilitation hospitals.

"Our relationship with Aetna is about providing access to a high-performing network that is consumer-focused and consumer friendly, with care coordination done on the physician side of the care model," said Dan Varga, M.D., Texas Health's chief clinical officer who is leading the physician network that will drive the partnership's performance. "This allows us to care for patients more effectively and efficiently."

"We are excited to work with Texas Health on a new, innovative partnership that will improve the health and well-being of the diverse communities throughout North Texas," said Michael Nelson, Aetna's market president for Texas. "By sharing accountability equally, Aetna and Texas Health will be able to streamline processes and eliminate inefficiencies that will lead to health care savings for consumers and employers in the form of more affordable premiums."

The partnership with Texas Health is Aetna's second joint venture with a nonprofit health system, as Aetna moves 75 percent of its contracts to value-based care models by 2020.

Texas Health had nearly 162,000 inpatient stays and more than 1.5 million outpatient encounters (excluding physician office visits) in North Texas last year. Aetna provides health care benefits to approximately 700,000 commercial members in the 14-county area in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. About Texas Health Resources Texas Health Resources is one of the largest faith-based, nonprofit health systems in the United States. The health system, which along with UT Southwestern founded Southwestern Health Resources in 2016 to make it easier for North Texans to access the highest quality care consistently in a responsive and coordinated manner, includes 27 acute care and short-stay hospitals that are owned, operated, joint-ventured or affiliated with Texas Health Resources. It includes Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas, Texas Health Arlington Memorial, Texas Health Harris Methodist and Texas Health Huguley Hospitals, Texas Health Physicians Group, outpatient facilities, behavioral health and home health, preventive and fitness services, and an organization for medical research and education. For more information about Texas Health Resources, call 1-877-THR-WELL, or visit www.TexasHealth.org. About Aetna Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving an estimated 46.5 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities, Medicaid health care management services, workers' compensation administrative services and health information technology products and services. Aetna's customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com and learn about how Aetna is helping to build a healthier world. @AetnaNews. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160526005305/en/

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