96-02-02 TRUSTEES: Board Approve Participation in Health Network

BOARD APPROVES PARTICIPATION IN 11-MEMBER HEALTH NETWORK,
MAKES LOAN TO MEDOHIO HEALTH TO DEVELOP HMO

	COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University Board of Trustees 
voted Friday (2/2) to establish the Ohio State Health Network, a 
non-profit corporation, to plan and develop a regional health 
care delivery system.  It will include University Hospitals, the 
Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Research Institute, and up to 
nine other hospitals who are members of the Health Care 
Consortium of Ohio.

	Mary Rutan Hospital in Bellefontaine and Wyandot Memorial 
Hospital in Upper Sandusky have already committed to the 
initiative.  Participation of other hospitals is pending approval 
of their respective boards.

	"The purpose of this organization is to work with our 
community network partners to be successful as the health care 
environment keeps changing in Ohio and to be prepared to work 
with managed care," said Gerald Maier, associate executive 
director of University Hospitals.

	"Our primary focus is to work together to take better care 
of patients who have to move from one community to another to 
receive the appropriate level of service.  Our objective is to 
build those systems and linkages to enable that coordination of 
care to take place in a manner as cost effective as possible."

	Maier said that the system of better care of patients should 
lead to better management of costs.

	The hospitals have agreed to pursue several strategies in 
developing a regional health-care delivery system.  Those 
strategies include developing:

	-- A more formal organization for integration and managed 
care purposes.
	-- Physician integration and service programs.
	-- Systems to improve medical service delivery across the 
network.
	-- Comprehensive health service networks in each community.
	-- Initiatives to reduce costs.
	-- Information and telecommunication programs.

MedOhio Health preparing to offer HMO

	Trustees authorized a loan of $1.2 million to MedOhio 
Health, a central Ohio based non-profit health care corporation, 
to develop a health maintenance organization.  The loan will 
permit MedOhio Health to receive a certificate of authority from 
the Ohio Department of Insurance to operate an HMO under a 
subsidiary, MedOhio Health Plan.  An application was filed Dec. 
15.

	According to officials at the University Medical Center, 
securing the services and support of an insurance organization, 
such as an HMO, is necessary to maintain position in the Medicaid 
and Medicare programs and to be able to participate in the 
commercial and workers compensation markets.

	The Medicaid program is an important source of 
reimbursement, especially in terms of funding for graduate 
medical education.  Working with an HMO that strongly supports 
the university's educational goals is one way to maintain access 
to those graduate medical education funds.

	MedOhio Health Plan is planning to submit a proposal to the 
Ohio Department of Human Services to provide Medicaid covered 
services for recipients of Aid to Dependent Children and Healthy 
Start.

                                #

Contact:  Gerald Maier, (614) 292-4590, or R. Reed Fraley, 
executive director of University Hospitals, (614) 293-5555.


[Submitted by: Von Reid-Vargas (ereid@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu)
               
Mon, 5 Feb 1996 08:40:46 -0500]
All documents are the responsibility of their originator.