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Someone asked me last week what it was like to attend the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, which started its annual run today. Outside the conference hotel right now is the obligatory lunchtime sidewalk protest with chants of “Personal Health, Not Corporate Wealth,” while inside healthcare industry investors and operators together are chanting “pop health” instead.  The conference again is well attended, with a broad representation of for-profit and non-profit companies from the health services, health information technology and life sciences sectors.  In a sense, it’s the old-style Times Square of the healthcare industry – stand in one spot at the conference long enough and you’ll see almost every major organization walk by.
Continue Reading Day One Notes – JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, San Francisco

In Medical Center at Elizabeth Place v. Premier Health Partners et. al, Case No. 12-cv-26 (S.D. Oh. Oct. 20, 2014), the Southern District of Ohio held that previously-competing health care systems who join together in a revenue-sharing arrangement are incapable of conspiring with each other under Section 1 of the Sherman Act.  This is the latest decision to weigh in on the level of integration required among legally separate entities to be deemed a single economic actor for antitrust purposes, and particularly significant given the rapidly increasing number of collaborations within the health care industry following passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Continue Reading District Court Weighs in on Level of Integration Required to Shield Health Care Collaborations from Section 1 Scrutiny

Anthem Blue Cross and seven competing hospital systems in Southern California are joining forces to establish a new health plan offering, Vivity.[1]  Operating with a combined 14 hospitals and approximately 6,000 physicians, the venture has already announced its first major customer: the State of California’s pension fund manager, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS).
Continue Reading From Competitors to Co-Adventurers, Seven Hospital Systems Join with Anthem Blue Cross to Shake Things Up in Southern California

Chicago-area Alexian Brothers Health System and Adventist Midwest Health signed a non-binding letter of intent to form a joint operating company, a collaboration commonly referred to as a virtual merger. As Alexian brings five hospitals to the agreement and Adventist brings four, the health systems combined would create the third-largest network of hospitals in the Illinois area.
Continue Reading A “virtual merger” is underway between Chicago-area Alexian Brothers Health System and Adventist Midwest Health

In 2012, Aetna and Inova, a not-for-profit health system in Virginia, formed a joint venture health plan: Innovation Health. The health plan is an entirely new entity owned jointly by both organizations. Its network emphasizes Inova’s providers.
Continue Reading Innovation Health: A joint venture approach to payer-provider integration in Virginia