Aetna, Texas Health Resources develop a jointly owned health policy

In provider-insurer collaboration, Texas Health Resources and Aetna on the day of Thursday declared the formation of a jointly owned health policy company.

Texas Health brings to the table the contributors along with an investment in the population health management. Aetna has the health policy expertise and analytical insights.

Aetna and Texas Health Resources will equally share ownership and accountability, in accordance to a statement from both agencies.

The partnership is the 1^st of its kind in Texas for the agencies, but represents Aetna’s 2^nd joint venture with a nonprofit health system. Aetna stated that it plans to move 75% of its contracts to value-based care models by the year 2020.

Collaborations between contributors and insurers are becoming more usual as a way to lower costs and the cost of premiums.

Previously this month, Cigna declared a joint accountable care organization (ACO) model with Integrated Independent Physicians Network in the state of Florida.

“By sharing accountability equally, Aetna and Texas Health will be capable to streamline procedures and eradicate inefficiencies that will lead to health care savings for customers and employers in the form of more affordable premiums,” stated Michael Nelson, Aetna’s market president for Texas.

The new health policy in Texas will combine completely integrated care teams, health insurance benefits and administrative facilities to eliminate redundancies of care and to decrease the administrative hassles, Aetna and Texas Health Resources claimed.

Both employers and clients in the state of North Texas will benefit from more affordable, high-quality and better-coordinated care, they stated.

New fully-insured and self-insured commercial products will be offered to employers and consumers in fourteen counties in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metro area, and are hoped to be available on the day of Jan. 1, 2017, pending regulatory approval.

The new partnership will depict the Southwestern Health Resources network as its core, which involves more than 500 physicians in Texas Health’s employed physician group.

Texas Health’s 69 outpatient services involve surgery centers, fitness centers, imaging centers and more than 250 other community access points. Its hospitals involve sixteen acute-care facilities, along with 6 short-stay, one transitional care and 2 rehabilitation hospitals.