The agreement could
add a dozen new surgery centers, which have emerged as lower-cost alternatives
to hospitals for certain procedures.
Allina
Health System has created a partnership with Optum, the health services
division of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group, that could develop up to a
dozen new ambulatory surgery centers over the next five years.
Minneapolis-based
Allina did not release financial terms of the development agreement, which was
finalized in December.
Plans
call for Optum to begin managing in February Allina’s surgery center at the
West Health medical campus in Plymouth. Optum is one of the nation’s largest
operators of surgery centers, a business that grew significantly with the acquisition three years ago of a
company called Surgical Care Affiliates.
“This
partnership with SCA — Surgical Care Affiliates — represents for us an
opportunity to bring care closer to our community,” said Lisa Shannon, the
chief operating officer of Allina, in an interview.
“We
have earmarked 8 to 12 of these centers over a time horizon that still needs to
be defined,” Shannon said. “Our goal is that the community begins to see this
service becoming increasingly available in the next two years. Our plans look
over three to five years.”
Allina
Health System operates 11 hospitals including Abbott Northwestern in
Minneapolis and United Hospital in St. Paul. It’s one of the state’s largest
nonprofit groups, with more than 90 clinics and about 29,000 employees.
UnitedHealth
Group is one of the nation’s largest health care companies, including the
UnitedHealthcare, which is the nation’s largest insurer. The company’s Optum
division has been making a push in recent years to get closer to patients by
operating not just surgery centers but also urgent care centers and primary
care practices.
“SCA
is pleased to be working with Allina and we look forward to our partnership
delivering high quality outcomes for patients while reducing the total cost of
care,” the company said in a statement.
Ambulatory
surgical centers are licensed in Minnesota to provide surgical procedures that
do not require overnight inpatient hospital care. The centers have grown as
technology improvements, financial pressures and other factors have pushed more
medical procedures outside of inpatient hospitals. Currently, there are 81
licensed ambulatory surgery centers in the state, according to the Minnesota
Department of Health.
In
2018, Optum’s SCA business operated more than 200 surgical facilities,
including ambulatory surgery centers and surgical hospitals, in partnership
with approximately 3,000 physicians. When UnitedHealth Group acquired the
business in 2017, SCA had partnerships with three surgery centers in Minnesota.
Bill
Evans, a vice president at Allina, said Optum/SCA is expected to become an
equity partner in the new surgery centers.
Ambulatory
surgery centers are seen as a lower-cost alternative to hospitals for certain
procedures. Over the past year or so, a number of health insurers have been
introducing policies that try to steer more patients to the facilities for
care.
“We
are committed to supporting the community with lower-cost settings of care,”
said Shannon, the chief operating officer at Allina. “While the payers did not
trigger our pursuit of this plan ... we believe the payers are going to be
positively encouraged by our development.”
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