UVM Health Network will become the sole parent company of OneCare Vermont, a statewide ACO focused on Vermont's all-payer model.
OneCare was formed by Burlington, Vt.-based UVM Health Network and Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock shortly after Vermont signed onto CMS' experimental all-payer ACO model in 2012.
As the state ACO committed to the all-payer model, OneCare provides resources and support to the providers that care for patients in three key areas: network performance management, payment reform, and data and analytics. The all-payer ACO aims to move Vermont toward a value-based, equitable healthcare model.
Under the deal, announced Sept. 24, OneCare will join the UVM Health Network umbrella on Oct. 1. OneCare will remain its own legal entity and will maintain a governance board that includes other healthcare executives.
Governance board members said the deal was made to ensure OneCare is stable and efficient.
"Through the strategic planning process, the board took a hard look at how OneCare can add stability to health care reform and found that a sole parent organization gives OneCare the most stability and creates efficiencies," said Tom Dee, a OneCare board member and president and CEO of Southwestern Vermont Health Care in Bennington. "Because OneCare is an accountable care organization, it has the structure we need to improve quality across hospitals and to work together to achieve our shared goal: better health for Vermonters at a more reasonable cost."
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, which is giving up governance control, will retain a seat on the board.
"This is really just a structural change aimed at improving the sustainability of OneCare," Steve LeBlanc, chief strategy officer of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health, told VTDigger. "Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health is totally committed to remain a participant."