Saint Thomas Health Joins National Health Care Leaders In Creation of MissionPoint Health Partners

NASHVILLE – Aug. 10, 2011 – Saint Thomas Health, a member of Ascension Health, and a group of the nation’s leading health care companies announced today the pilot of MissionPoint Health Partners, an innovative platform for the delivery of integrated health care services for Middle Tennessee.

MissionPoint partners include Saint Thomas Health – along with its five regional hospitals and 200 affiliated physicians – as well as Cisco Systems Inc., Crimson Services, YMCA of Middle Tennessee and Applied Health Analytics.

The MissionPoint pilot will launch in January 2012 covering more than 15,000 lives – 6,500 of which are employees of Saint Thomas Health. The program will open enrollment during the next year and hopes to have 35,000 members by its full rollout in January 2013.

“It’s appropriate that these health care leaders would come together in Nashville – the capital of the U.S. health care industry – to develop an innovative response to the nation’s need for a new way to experience, deliver and receive health care,” said Dr. Michael Schatzlein, President and Chief Executive Officer of Saint Thomas Health. “MissionPoint is reflective of our broader approach and directives from Ascension Health to provide holistic, reverent care to the communities we serve.”

Today’s announcement was made in Nashville at The Frist Center. MissionPoint Health Partners Chief Executive Officer, Jason Dinger, was joined on stage by representatives from Cisco Systems Inc., Crimson Services, Applied Health Analytics and YMCA of Middle Tennessee to describe the new program.

“In an environment in which consumers – including patients, employers and payers – shoulder an increasing burden of the cost of health care, it is important for us to think of new and better ways to solve the issues that exist in today’s health care environment,” said Dinger. “MissionPoint’s goal is to uniquely link together primary care physicians, specialists, pharmacy services, hospitals, rehabilitation services and wellness programs to offer patients and employers a seamless continuum of care. That is what brings this exceptional group of health care organizations together today.”

The organizations have been working together since 2010 to develop a holistic approach to the local delivery of health care services in response to the growing demand of patients, employers and the federal government for a more integrated system that offers high quality, efficiency and accountability. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act calls for Medicare pilot programs to test the concept of Patient Centered Medical Homes and Accountable Care Organizations in the coming years.

How It Works
Through MissionPoint Health Partners and its partners – which include insurers, brokers and employers – patients will form an ongoing relationship with their physician’s office, whose job it is to keep that patient well, through typical visits, as well as preventive services and education.

If patients need services beyond their physician’s scope, the office’s staff will help navigate them through procedures, such as diagnostic imaging, surgeries or hospital stays. MissionPoint will also offer Care Partner Teams – a group of nurses, social workers and others who will be in constant communication with MissionPoint members and their physicians to help navigate and manage their health care needs.

Payment for MissionPoint services will be based on “outcomes” – whether the patient becomes and remains healthy – instead of the number of doctor’s visits, hospital stays or procedures a patient undergoes.

“MissionPoint is providing a singular, coordinated platform to not only provide episodic care to patients but prevent illnesses in the first place,” added Dinger. “MissionPoint will enable physicians, health care facilities and other providers to work together under aligned incentives to achieve better health outcomes for our community.”

Partners in New Platform
MissionPoint is currently partnering with the following organizations:

• Cisco Systems Inc.: MissionPoint and Saint Thomas Health entered into a relationship with Cisco Systems Inc. in 2010 that brings Cisco’s HealthPresence Solution, an advanced telemedicine platform, to rural, underserved communities in Tennessee. This relationship helps extend the reach of specialty health care, simplify health care communications and connect patients with medical providers and specialists to enable examinations in a convenient and efficient manner.
• Crimson Services: Through its partnership with the Advisory Board’s Crimson Initiative, MissionPoint will empower physicians to understand performance and identify best practices across its network with performance technologies and dedicated implementation support to advance quality goals and securing cost savings.
• Applied Health Analytics: MissionPoint is partnering with Applied Health Analytics to promote early detection and prevention in the fight against disease and illness.  They will provide MissionPoint members with Health Risk Assessments (HRAs) and personal health plans to promote lifestyle changes.
• YMCA of Middle Tennessee: The YMCA will bring greater opportunity for wellness access, learning and growth in the communities served by MissionPoint.

These organizations are working together to bring better care to patients across a number of systems. In particular, MissionPoint has been working with Cisco over the past year on a pilot project for their HealthPresence technology.

“In 2010, we began working with Saint Thomas Health and what is now MissionPoint to design and build a solution for specialist access in our most remote communities,” said Dr. Daniel Sands, Senior Medical Informatics Director at Cisco Systems. “For the first time, patients are gaining access to specialty care when they need it most and spending less time traveling.”

Next Steps
Prior to 2012, MissionPoint will be working with their current partners to further build the infrastructure to support Saint Thomas Health’s employees and their families, who will enroll as part of the pilot in January.

“The pilot will begin with Saint Thomas Health’s employees,” added Schatzlein. “We expect that if that population can produce savings compared to what we typically spend, other employers will follow.”

About MissionPoint Health Partners
Mission Point Health Partners is a new platform for health care delivery developed to bring doctors, nurses, hospitals and other care providers together to share the responsibility for keeping patients healthy. MissionPoint works to measurably lower the total cost and improve quality and satisfaction of a defined patient population’s care. For more information, please visit www.MissionPointHealth.com or call 615-284-6843.

Saint Thomas Health is a faith-based ministry with more than 6,500 associates serving Middle Tennessee. Saint Thomas Health’s regional health system consists of four hospitals – Baptist and Saint Thomas in Nashville, Middle Tennessee Medical Center in Murfreesboro and Hickman Community Hospital in Centerville – and a comprehensive network of affiliated joint ventures in diagnostics, cardiac services and ambulatory surgery as well as medical practices, the Center for Spinal Surgery, clinics and rehabilitation facilities. Saint Thomas Health is a member of Ascension Health, a Catholic organization that is the largest not-for-profit health system in the United States. For more information, visit http://www.sths.com.