Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente and Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare, the $3.3 billion clinical arm of Emory University, revealed plans to collaborate on a new care model to advance care for Kaiser members in the Atlanta metro area, Kaiser announced June 13.
Here are four things to know about the collaboration:
1. The goal of the collaboration is to improve community health, address healthcare disparities and create an integrated care and coverage model for the roughly 375,000 Kaiser members across 28 counties in metro Atlanta and four counties near Athens, Ga.
2. Under the agreement, Southeast Permanente Medical Group physicians will begin treating Kaiser patients at Emory University Hospital Midtown and Emory Saint Joseph's Hospital, both in Atlanta, in October 2018.
3. In anticipation of the agreement, Kaiser provided Emory Healthcare with a capital contribution of an undisclosed amount to be used for the expansion of both hospitals to accommodate new and existing patients.
4. Both organizations will maintain their existing service affiliations, and Emory Healthcare will retain its existing relationships with all of its affiliated health plans.
"Our joint focus [with the collaboration] will be to create a premier, integrated care and coverage model committed to improving health and affordability for our members, and better addressing health disparities, while working collaboratively to increase the number of people and communities who benefit from what our organizations can accomplish together," Jim Simpson, regional president of Kaiser Permanente Georgia, said in the June 13 statement.