Independent Massachusetts Hospital Systems Launch Value Alliance
HOLYOKE — A coalition of 10 independent Massachusetts health systems, including 14 community hospitals, have formed the Massachusetts Value Alliance (MVA) to enhance their efforts in delivering high-quality, patient-centered, and cost-effective care to their communities.
The member hospitals of the MVA collectively represent the largest collaboration of independent healthcare providers in the Commonwealth, with a combined $3.1 billion in total revenue. The 10-member collaborative spans the breadth of Massachusetts geographically, and serves approximately 2 million people in their combined market areas. This alliance is unique in Massachusetts as the only collaboration of independent healthcare systems.
The MVA was founded in 2016 by Emerson Hospital, Sturdy Memorial Hospital, and South Shore Health. Membership has continued to grow and now also includes Holyoke Medical Center, Berkshire Health Systems, Harrington HealthCare System, Heywood Healthcare, Lawrence General Hospital, Signature Healthcare, and Southcoast Health.
“Through the alliance, Holyoke Medical Center will be able to secure equipment and technology upgrades, efficiencies of scale, access to value-added services, as well as participation in regional and statewide collaboratives that would be impossible to achieve as a single hospital,” said Spiros Hatiras, president and CEO of Holyoke Medical Center and Valley Health Systems. “In turn, those efficiencies and improvements in technology and services will benefit the community we serve, our patients, and their families.”
The specific goals of the MVA include the development of group purchasing and shared service arrangements, identification and sharing of best practices to enhance each organization’s ability to affect and lower the total cost of care while enhancing quality of care, and support for the development of population-health-management and care-coordination skill sets and capabilities.
To date, the MVA has worked to facilitate cost savings for its member organizations through group purchasing of services, including reference-lab services and employee health benefits. Other initiatives are underway, including several MVA hospitals working together on the selection and implementation of a common electronic-medical-record platform.
“We are very pleased with the progress the MVA has made in a short period of time,” said Dr. Gene Green, president of the MVA board of trustees and president and CEO of South Shore Health. “Our membership is strong, 14 community hospitals representing 10 health systems. We are committed to working together to lower costs and enhance efficiencies, so we can continue what we do best: deliver high-quality care to the people we serve.”
The MVA is governed by a board of directors and operates on a shared decision-making platform. MVA member health systems remain competitive and independent, each maintaining their community focus.
