HealthPartners, Park Nicollet to Combine

HealthPartners and Park Nicollet Health Services are combining their operations, the two nonprofits announced Thursday.
    
The agreement will meld the two health care organizations into a 1,500-physician group practice integrated with the HealthPartners health plan, serving the Twin Cities metro area and western Wisconsin.
    
The organizations say they expect stronger coordination of patient care, shared planning and capital investment and new links between care and insurance that will lead to more transparency, choice and value for consumers.
    
The combined operations will include Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, four HealthPartners hospitals - Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, Hudson Hospital in Hudson, Wis., and Westfields Hospital in New Richmond, Wis. - as well as medical and dental clinics across the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin. The facilities will be integrated with the HealthPartners plan, which serves more than 1.4 million medical and dental members nationwide.
    
No clinic closures or layoffs are planned, the announcement said.
    
HealthPartners president and CEO Mary Brainerd will be CEO of the new organization, which will be named HealthPartners and be based in Bloomington. Park Nicollet president and CEO David Abelson will lead the care delivery system, which will be named the Park Nicollet HealthPartners Care Group.
    
The organizations expect their agreement will be effective Jan. 1, 2013.

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