Combining payer and provider networks saves money and eases consumers’ healthcare experiences, according to executives from Inova Health System and Aetna.
In 2012, the northern Virginia-based health system and the insurance company formed a joint payer-provider network called Innovation Health, according to an article at Healthcare Finance.
Since then, the enterprise has experienced financial success, including consistently staying under budget, Russ Mohawk, president and CEO of health plans and population health services of Inova Health System, tells the publication. In particular, he says, partnerships like Innovation cut down on waste, as the company reduced medical costs by 8 percent in its first year.
Innovation Health also offers one the lowest-priced plans in that market, which helped it gain more than 170,000 members in less than two years, Harold M. Paz, M.D., Aetna's chief medical officer, previously wrote in a contributed piece for FierceHealthpayer.
Gary Thomas, president of joint venture markets for Aetna, says the partnership works because Inova knows the care portion and Aetna knows the payment portion. For insurers especially, new product designs that are health and wellness-focused help better align incentives to keep patients healthy, the article adds.
Indeed, the overall shift to value-based care in the healthcare industry has paved the way for once-adversarial payers and providers to operate in harmony, FierceHealthPayer previously reported.
Ultimately, Inova and Aetna want to make Innovation an even more consolidated payer-provider network so consumers have one point of contact for their healthcare needs, Mohawk tells Healthcare Finance. “The market’s ready. There’s an appetite for this,” he adds.
To learn more:
- read the Healthcare Finance article