WellSpan Health and Gateway health announce value-based partnership

WellSpan Health is partnering with Pittsburgh-based managed care organization Gateway Health Plan in a move the two organizations say will lower health care costs for Gateway’s 24,000 Medicaid members living in South Central Pennsylvania.

Gateway and York-based WellSpan announced this week that they entered a value-based partnership agreement that will allow the two entities to utilize data insights to improve the health outcomes for WellSpan patients with Medicaid through Gateway.

The agreement will also let WellSpan lower health care costs for Gateway’s Medicaid members through value-based programs where it will receive incentives for meeting health care quality and cost-reduction targets.

“Gateway Health is proud to partner with WellSpan to provide our Medicaid members with enhanced value-based care that they can really count on,” said Ellen Duffield, COO at Gateway Health. “We are committed to connecting our members to the type of care they need to live healthier lives and achieve not just physical health, but whole life health.”

The two organizations intend to proactively contact Gateway’s Medicaid members without a primary care provider and address their barriers to care to help avoid costly emergency department visits in the future, WellSpan wrote in a press release on Thursday.

“A key driver in growing our relationship with Gateway Health is learning more about the most effective ways to provide care to patients that promotes lifelong wellness,” said Dr. Geoff Nicholson, Jr., senior vice president of population health at WellSpan. “Together, we can keep patients healthier and strive for a shared vision of higher quality care at lower costs.”