UW Health, UnityPoint Health-Meriter leaders upbeat as they explore partnerships

Leaders at UW Health and UnityPoint Health-Meriter say they’re confident talks on further partnerships will succeed.

The collaborations seemed unlikely years ago, after the failure of similar talks led to more competition — and lawsuits. But new leaders at both organizations say they look forward to hammering out details of what those partnerships would look like.

“We’ve got a long way to go, and we’re encouraged that we’ve gotten this far,” said Arthur Nizza, the UnityPoint Health-Meriter CEO.

Along with other possible partners, both have signed two non-binding letters of intent outlining what their collaborations would look like.

Those partners are UnityPoint Health, the Iowa health system that owns the Meriter hospital in Madison; Physicians Plus, the UnityPoint-affiliated insurance company; Unity Health Plans, the insurance company affiliated with UW Health; and Gundersen Health Plan, which is tied to the Gundersen Health System.

The three insurance companies would merge under one of those possible partnerships, which would follow a just-closed merger between Gundersen Health Plan and Unity. The merger would need regulatory approval from the state and feds.

Alan Kaplan, the UW Health CEO and former UnityPoint exec, said the combined insurance company would give patients more options of providers. The increased membership, he added, would make the combined company more efficient as it deals with a shifting health care landscape.

“We believe by coming together, we can be more sustainable,” he said.

The other letter of intent details possible closer partnerships between UW Health and UnityPoint Health-Meriter. One of those partnerships would bring together the specialist doctors under one medical group that would work for UW Health, which already employs significantly more specialists.

The other would be a much broader integration of their clinical systems, which the leaders say would lead to lower costs and better service.

One way it will lower costs, Kaplan said, is by preventing UW Health from building more space for patient beds and instead letting those patients go to Meriter, whose facilities have more room.

“It allows us to avoid spending capital,” Kaplan said. “To build more beds is not good for anybody.”

That part of the partnership, both leaders said, would ensure patients can move freely between UW Health and Meriter without trouble and without regard to which organization will get paid.

That would be similar to their current Mother-Baby partnership, which allows them streamline aspects like call centers and transportation while also benefitting patients, Nizza said.

Though the two have a long history of working together, their attempts to get closer failed in 2011. But both leaders say it’s a much different time. The new leadership, Nizza said, “frankly doesn’t have a lot of the baggage” from those earlier fights.

UW Health, Nizza noted, is a much different organization after its hospital and physicians group combined — a marriage that was partly intended to make it easier to pursue partnerships. And UnityPoint leadership, after acquiring Meriter, reached out to UW Health to see how they collaborate, he said.

“Our visions for health care are more aligned at this point,” Nizza said.

— By Polo Rocha,
WisBusiness.com