Contact:
Lisa Brunette
(608) 263-5830
lbrunette@uwhealth.org
MADISON and SAUK CITY, Wis. – (April 10, 2017) – UW Health, UnityPoint Health, UnityPoint Health – Meriter (Meriter), Physicians Plus Insurance Corp., Unity Health Plans Insurance Corp. (Unity) and Gundersen Health Plan have reached two important milestones in their plans to collaborate more closely in the future.
All organizations have now signed formal agreements and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has completed its regulatory review, clearing the way for finalizing the agreements.
The Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) must approve the insurance transaction before it is finalized. So, although the organizations have reached important milestones in the process, nothing changes operationally today for patients, members or employees as a result.
Eventually, the combination of Physicians Plus, Unity and Gundersen Health Plan will give members a greater choice of providers, products and plans.
The joint operating agreement (JOA) between Meriter and UW Health formalizes and expands their already significant collaboration in caring for patients. UW Health and Meriter have worked together for decades to provide the best in patient care in southern Wisconsin. They are partners in the Madison Surgery Center, Wisconsin Sleep, Transformations Surgery Center, Wisconsin Dialysis, Inc., Generations Fertility Care and the UW Health Rehabilitation Hospital. More recently, they implemented a joint operating agreement to create a shared destination mother-baby care program.
These milestones follow the signing of non-binding letters of intent in June 2016. Since that time, the organizations have made significant progress on their due-diligence reviews, met with regulators and set broad outlines for governance and operating structures.
Final closing of the agreements is expected in summer 2017, pending OCI’s approval.