Dive Brief:
- Providence Health & Services and Swedish Health Services said June 13 that Providence-Swedish Health Alliance, their joint ACO, is working directly with employers — and Boeing is the first on board.
- Under the model, the two Seattle-based nonprofit healthcare systems, which affiliated in 2012, are customizing products for employers to suit their employees' needs.
- Boeing chose Providence-Swedish Health Alliance ACO for its new Preferred Partnership option, available in the Puget Sound area for about 27,000 employees and 3,000 retirees. Those eligible can stay in current plans or select the new option, which lets them choose one of two ACO networks: either Providence-Swedish Health Alliance or UW Medicine Accountable Care Network. Annual enrollment will be held in November for coverage starting Jan. 1, 2015.
Dive Insight:
The commercial market is the second step for Providence-Swedish Health Alliance. It was first approved by CMS in December 2013 as a Medicare ACO — one of only three in Washington state — and now covers 25,000-plus beneficiaries. And it isn't stopping there. Providence said it anticipates making its ACO model available to other employers, commercial insurers, Medicaid recipients and the uninsured.
Diversification is the name of the game as hospitals position themselves to become integrated systems in a highly-competitive market. Some healthcare economists may worry that ACO formation, by promoting hospital mergers and provider consolidation, could drive up costs and limit consumers' choice. But Boeing — by stressing that it will continue to work with other providers in the community and offering its employees a choice between two ACO network options — seems to be keeping its options wide open.