DANVILLE – You might soon see new health care facility pop in Lycoming County if Geisinger Health System and Highmark Inc. follow through on their discussions on a joint venture announced Wednesday.
Leaders of the two health care corporations held a statewide news conference call with reporters and announced that Geisinger—which already has clinics in Northcentral Pennsylvania, and Highmark—which already has thousands of Blue Cross card holders in that region, are exploring a new joint venture.
Geisinger executive vice president and chief administration officer Lynn Miller put it in lay terms, “They’ll be new programs, bringing specialty care closer to where the patient is, and then really looking at alternatives to inpatient care or the historic outpatient care.”
Deborah Rice-Johnson, president of Highmark Health Plan spoke of the joint venture, “So we’ll be looking at ways to implement, in a more robust way, population health care models that allow us to manage patients differently than they are managed today.”
The news today was that Geisinger and Highmark are going to explore the partnership; they signed a letter of intent, and said there could soon be a new health care facility in Lycoming County that would have health care services for GHP, Highmark and other heath care plan members. Health care providers and insurance companies are increasingly working together.
Both companies said the goal would be to create greater patient choice. They discussed having a series of series of new health care programs in the Lycoming, Clinton, Tioga and Sullivan County regions. That part of the state has Geisinger clinics already, but is now in the heart of UPMC territory. UPMC recently acquired Susquehanna Health System.