Well did they did one thing right and got CalPERS on board so that a lot of business to start out with effective January 1, 2015. CalPERS was just in the news with getting rid of all their hedge fund investments to the tune of $4 billion as well. MemorialCare and
Cedars already have a few things going together like this Venture Capital fund created a few months ago.
Cedars-Sinai and MemorialCare Health System Create New Venture Capital Company-Sounds Like A Little Influence of From The United Healthcare Manifesto Is Moving Up to LA, Maybe More Cash For Code for Developers?
The whole idea here is to take on Kaiser as they have a lot of business and are self contained with both insurance and medical care in one. It will be called the Vivity Health Plan and will be about 10 percent less in cost than a standard Anthem Blue Cross HMO plan. Nobody knows if this will save any money or not and right now in that area it’s just a proof of concept. There will be around 6000 doctors and 14 hospitals all together in the group. Already with UCLA and Cedars they both invested in a rehab hospital so they can move you over to the old Century City Hospital to get you out the door faster.
Century City Hospital In West LA To Get a New Life, A Rehab Hospital Investment For UCLA and Cedar Sinai Hospitals
This probably explains the madness behind the new big data base Blue Cross is paying $80 million to start as well and I have no clue on how it will work and have my doubts on that one as well unless now these hospitals decide to kick in for an HIE type of operation.
Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield of California Going to Create “Yet Another Big Data Base of Patient Medical Records” - Be Ready for Premiums to Go Up As Health IT Eats Up the Healthcare System
Also I would imagine the $350 a month kick back to the Oncologists will play in here too with all the doctors
seeing cancer patients where they agree to use the Blue Cross methods of recommended treatment. Anthem Blue Cross is a licensed reseller of IBM Watson and a couple years ago pretty much foot the bill for the use at Cedars to get it started.
WellPoint Begins New Oncology Program For Providers Offering Doctors $350 Monthly Payment For Each Patient Treated Using Insurers Recommendations - Is This A Kickback Offer?
I can understand what they are doing here and at least they are being honest and saying “this is just a stab in the dark” venture. Obviously having CalPERS as base is big help by all means if a great number of their insured sign up. This will get interesting as there will be one more plan to check eligibility with. This gets kind of interesting as MemorialCare in more ways than one has some pretty strong ties to United Healthcare too. MemorialCare owns the management company that runs the Cedars Doctor’s IPA group, Nautilus, which also runs Greater Newport Physicians in the OC. BD
Taking aim at HMO giant Kaiser Permanente, insurer Anthem Blue Cross is joining forces with several big-name hospitals and their doctors to create an unusual health plan option for employers in Southern California.
The joint venture being announced Wednesday brings together seven rival hospital groups in Los Angeles and Orange counties, including well-known institutions Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the UCLA Health System. The deal reflects the pressure insurers and hospitals alike are facing to hold down healthcare costs for employers and their workers.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the giant pension fund and the nation's second-largest healthcare buyer, has already signed on as the first major customer in the Southland starting Jan. 1.
The new Vivity health plan also includes MemorialCare Health System, Good Samaritan Hospital, Huntington Memorial Hospital, Torrance Memorial Medical Center and PIH Health. In addition to their hospitals, this Anthem HMO includes all of their affiliated physicians offices, surgery centers, clinics and other outpatient facilities.
"We will have a price point similar to Kaiser or better," said Barry Arbuckle, chief executive of MemorialCare, which runs Long Beach Memorial and five other area hospitals. "This is the next major step for managed care”.
The seven hospital partners and Anthem, the state's largest for-profit health insurer and a unit of WellPoint Inc., will share in any profits and losses from this joint venture.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-anthem-hospitals-deal-20140917-story.html#page=1
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