Situation
Mergers and acquisitions are expensive and time-consuming, with enormous investments of effort in due diligence, external approvals and regulatory complexity.
Health systems should consider models to achieve collaboration and system benefits through different approaches.
Background
In a highly competitive market, a nationally based, faith-sponsored system needed local affiliations and access to branded services lines and academic programs.
AMCs can be viable partners, because they enjoy unique advantages in physician recruitment and incentive models under the AMC exemptions that provide flexibility to recruit and deploy physicians to remote locations.
Execution
• A unique model was executed in which the AMC and faith-based system built a linkage around branded cancer services as the springboard to broader relationships in other clinical areas.
• Many of the advantages of clinical research, trials and investigational therapies became shared with System partners.
• The service line host hospital drove clinical protocols, care signature, care standards and marketing.
• Community-based ambulatory centers became operated under the auspices of the partnership in a revenue sharing model.
Results
A financial partnership was established that now provides for margin sharing, linked to key quality indicators and patient satisfaction, as well as program growth.