PROVIDENCE — Partners HealthCare of Massachusetts is holding “very preliminary” exploratory merger talks with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care about how the two companies could work together.
Representatives from Partners and Harvard Pilgrim referenced the changing healthcare industry landscape in their descriptions of the reasoning driving the discussions.
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“As the healthcare environment changes and insurers and providers increasingly share financial risk, traditional relationships are shifting,” said Rich Copp, spokesman for Partners HealthCare.
“These conversations are occurring in a very dynamic health care environment in which the organizations that will be best positioned for future success are those that can create a truly seamless end-to-end consumer experience that improves health outcomes and lowers costs,” said Joan Fallon, director of community relations and public affairs at Harvard Pilgrim.
Partners entered an exclusive agreement to pursue a merger with Care New England in January. The CNE-Partners definitive agreement includes Kent Hospital in Warwick; Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island in Providence; the VNA of Care New England, based in Warwick; Butler Hospital in Providence; and The Providence Center in several Rhode Island locations.
On Friday, James Beardsworth, spokesman for CNE, declined to comment on the talks between Partners and Harvard Pilgrim.
Partners HealthCare includes 14 community and specialty hospitals, a managed care organization, a physician network, and 21 community health centers in Massachusetts.
Harvard Pilgrim is the second largest health plan in Massachusetts. It’s flagship health plans in New England provide health coverage to 1.3 million members in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut, while its family of companies provide health benefit plans, programs and services to more than 3 million customers in New England and beyond.
“Partners HealthCare is constantly exploring new partnerships and relationships with other providers and insurers with the goal of improving the delivery of health care to patients both locally and around the world. Harvard Pilgrim is certainly among those organizations. Both of our organizations are taking the opportunity to explore ways that we can work together to improve the patient experience and quality of care while controlling medical trend and reducing costly administrative burden,” Copp said in his statement on the talks.
Fallon said Harvard Pilgrim is interested in how Partners’ health delivery system can help them improve health outcomes and lower costs.
Copp said the talks do not have the potential to affect merger talks between Partners and CNE.
“We are assessing a number of potential models for how this could best work. This could involve a range of options from new contractual arrangements to deeper clinical, operational and financial integration of our organizations. While we are very excited about these conversations, they are very preliminary and no final agreements have been reached. We remain committed to the communities we serve, including our patients, customers, public officials and provider partners across the delivery system. Part of that commitment includes updating our constituents when we have more definitive information to share,” Fallon said.
Rob Borkowski is a PBN staff writer. Email him at Borkowski@PBN.com.
