South Carolina Hospital Collaborative Challenges Conventional Thinking
Improving the quality of care for patients while cutting the cost of providing that care seems counterintuitive. To many, it seems impossible. Yet, leaders of some of South Carolina’s major health systems are doing just that.
While remaining independent, five health systems have joined forces in a health collaborative named Initiant to create efficiencies and synergies that mitigate the rising costs of health care. They include Greenville Health System (Greenville), McLeod Health (Florence), MUSC Health (Charleston), Palmetto Health (Columbia) and Self Regional Healthcare (Greenwood). These types of collaborations are occurring across the country in response to major shifts in health care attributable to regulatory and reimbursement policies in the Affordable Care Act, and a collective desire to improve health care value for patients and payers. CMS (the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) and other payers are putting in place arrangements to compensate providers based on the value of services rather than the traditional fee-for-service model. Health systems are now focused on boosting quality outcomes and reducing costs simultaneously – the very definition of value – rather than being paid for the quantity of services provided. Health care providers are best positioned to lead efforts to bring such value to health care. BJC Collaborative in Missouri, Stratus in Georgia and the Iowa Healthcare Consortium in Des Moines are similar regional partnerships created by local health care organizations with a commitment to reducing costs and improving efficiencies by working together. By forming Initiant, we are combining forces in South Carolina to effectively address costs and create other synergies required to perform in the new era of health care.
Through Initiant, strong South Carolina health systems will work together to effectively address costs, while remaining independent and responsive to the needs of each organization’s community. Uniting certain operations allows for economies of scale:
- joint purchasing of equipment, supplies, and services
- shared administrative and clinical support systems
- enhanced access to critical competencies not currently available or affordable to a single organization
Beyond the obvious business benefits of lowering costs, moving forward, Initiant will benefit the people of South Carolina in many ways. New competencies need to be created in order to support the shift to population health and wellness. Initiant can accelerate the attainment of this shared vision. The efficiencies of working together can be used to expand or add needed medical services and improve access to health and wellness services throughout the state – particularly to underserved communities and populations.
Arresting the rising cost of health care is essential to the well-being of South Carolina’s economy. We want South Carolina to be known as the state that provides businesses a competitive advantage because the workforce is healthy and health care is affordable. The decision to join forces with other leading SC health systems through the Initiant Health Collaborative demonstrates a commitment to innovation, cooperation, and fiscal responsibility that are essential to enhancing the health of our citizens, the economic future of our state, and the value of health care for all stakeholders.
