Rochester, Syracuse Health Systems Form Venture to Focus on Population Health

Extending prior strategic partnerships, and following more than 18 months of development work, leaders of St. Joseph’s Health in Syracuse, N.Y., and the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) today announced formation of a new organization to work with health systems across the state.

Concordia Healthcare Network LLC is a super-clinically integrated network (CIN) created to help other health systems, hospitals and provider groups transition to value-based care, an increasingly common payment approach that requires systems to comprehensively monitor and manage the overall health of their population in addition to billing for services.

Concordia is jointly operated by Accountable Health Partners (AHP)—the CIN that serves URMC faculty members, affiliated hospitals and other providers in the Finger Lakes and surrounding areas—and St. Joseph’s Health, a regional non-profit health care system based in Syracuse that offers primary, specialty and home care, a Magnet-recognized hospital, and collaboration with community partners.

The formation of Concordia does not change the structure of either network or its services to providers. Instead, it will serve as a “super CIN” that shares collective expertise and resources with health systems in other parts of Upstate New York—helping all members to increase patient access to services and improve the quality of clinical care, while keeping costs as affordable as possible.

“We believe the whole of Concordia Healthcare Network will be greater than the sum of its parts,” said Robert M. McCann, M.D., chair of the 10-member Concordia Healthcare Network board. McCann is also the CEO of Accountable Health Partners and Chief of Medicine at Highland Hospital in Rochester, a URMC affiliate. “The Concordia name will not be widely known to patients, but they will see benefits from their local health systems through expanded access to providers, improved preventive care, better clinical integration and more affordable health-plan options.”

“This alliance of CINs—known as a “super CIN”—is motivated by our common desire to expand our value proposition to larger populations and further strengthen our population health management capabilities while retaining healthy system independence. This complex collaboration is only achievable as a result of the mission and leadership congruence of Concordia Healthcare Network’s providers,” said Paul Fiacco, M.D. Concordia vice-chair and president of CNY Accountable Integrated Medicine, a CIN operated by St. Joseph’s Health.

Three health systems have already committed to participation in Concordia—Family Health Network of Central New York, a federally funded community health center serving residents of Cortland and contiguous counties; Lourdes Hospital and its physician network, serving Binghamton and the SouthernTier; and Innovative Health Alliance of New York (IHANY), serving Albany and the Capital Region.

Previous System Collaborations

In December 2017, Auburn Community Hospital (ACH) announced a strategic partnership with St. Joseph’s Health and URMC, a collaboration between the two larger systems that helped lay the groundwork for Concordia Healthcare Network. Health professionals in Auburn are able to more easily collaborate with colleagues in Syracuse and Rochester, while patients benefit from easier access to the services of the larger hospitals, finding nearly any service they need within these three organizations.

Last August, the two systems announced an ambulatory liver transplant clinic operated by URMC at St. Joseph’s Health in Syracuse. The location offers care closer to home for the hundreds of UR Medicine liver transplant patients who live in Central New York and the Mohawk, Hudson Valley, Capital and Northern New York regions. These patients can receive living-donor or traditional liver transplants at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, while visiting the St. Joseph’s clinic for disease assessment, ongoing liver care, and post-transplant follow-up appointments.

About URMC and Accountable Health Partners

One of the nation’s leading academic medical centers, the University of Rochester Medical Center forms the centerpiece of the University of Rochester’s health research, teaching and patient care missions. URMC’s flagship facility, Strong Memorial Hospital, is designated by the New York State Department of Health as a Level One regional trauma and burn center. It is home to nationally renowned clinical care and research, including Upstate New York’s only cardiac and liver transplant programs, the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, Golisano Children’s Hospital of Rochester, and the Wilmot Cancer Institute, Upstate’s premier cancer center providing comprehensive cancer care with expertise in precision medicine, complex cancers and clinical trials. URMC is a member of the Accountable Health Partnersnetwork, which serves about 300,000 covered lives and includes more than 2,000 faculty and community providers at URMC; at five URMC-affiliated hospital systems under the UR Medicine brand in Rochester, Canandaigua, Dansville, Hornell, and Wellsville; Arnot Ogden Medical Center in Elmira; and Wyoming County Community Hospital.

About St. Joseph’s Health and CNY Accountable Integrated Medicine (CNY AIM)

St. Joseph’s Health is a regional nonprofit health care system based in Syracuse, N.Y. St. Joseph’s has been an innovative leader in health care since its founding in 1869 as the first hospital open to the public in the City of Syracuse. Offering primary, specialty and home care, a Magnet-recognized hospital, and collaboration with community partners, St. Joseph's Health advances the well-being of the communities it serves through an expanding range of services to ensure patients achieve optimum long-term health. St. Joseph’s is ranked by Consumer Reports among the top 15 heart-surgery centers in the country, a designated Stroke Center and a U.S. News “Best Regional Hospital.” St. Joseph’s Health is affiliated with Franciscan Companies and St. Joseph’s Physicians, and is a member of Trinity Health. St. Joseph’s Health is celebrating its 150th Anniversary throughout 2019. For more information on the system’s founding Sisters of St. Francis, including Saint Marianne Cope, its legacy and innovations, visit www.sjhsyr.org/legacy. CNY Accountable Integrated Medicine, a CIN established by St. Joseph’s Health in 2015, includes more than 1,100 community and health system affiliated providers encompassing over 92,000 covered lives in the Syracuse and Utica-Rome Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs).

About Family Health Network

Family Health Network of Central New York, Inc. (FHN) is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and a licensed Article 28 Diagnostic and Treatment Center that has been providing primary healthcare to the residents of Central New York since 1972, with a special focus on services to the vulnerable uninsured and underinsured individuals. Organizationally, FHN has five freestanding medical centers, one of which includes dental services, plus an additional four school-based health centers in Cortland, Cayuga, and Madison counties; that also service residents of the contiguous counties of Tompkins, Chenango, Broome and Tioga. FHN also provides school-based dental services to eight different school systems for targeted grades.

About Our Lady of Lourdes

Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, in Binghamton, NY is part of Ascension, the largest non-profit healthcare organization in the US. Lourdes is dedicated to spiritually centered, holistic care which sustains and improves the health of individuals and communities. Lourdes is committed to serving all persons with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable. The main hospital campus includes an Ambulatory Care Center, Breast Care Center, a Regional Cancer Center and numerous specialty practices. Reaching beyond these boundaries, Lourdes has established a network of primary care physicians at 12 convenient sites throughout the region and the Lourdes at Home and Hospice programs which care for patients in their homes and various nursing facilities. Two mobile mammography vans, a dental van and a medical services van deliver health services out into the region, making health care more easily accessible to surrounding communities.

About Innovative Health Alliance of New York (IHANY)

The Innovative Health Alliance of New York, LLC (IHANY) is a collaboration among doctors, health systems and health care providers in New York's Capital Region centered around Albany and surrounding counties. The members of IHANY are aimed at improving the health of the communities they serve by working together in new, more coordinated ways. IHANY is the Capital Region's first Clinically Integrated Network (CIN), formed in June 2014 as a partnership between physicians, St. Peter's Health Partners, Ellis Medicine, and St. Mary's in Amsterdam. IHANY has grown to include many additional partners. In today's evolving health care landscape, clinical integration is essential to achieving the three-part aim of better health for the community, better care for individuals, and lower costs of health care.