ANNUAL CONFERENCE RECAP | 2018
Building Blocks for Successful Long
Term/Post-Acute Care Affiliations
Good Shepherd Communities
Thank you, Mike Keenan and Good
Shepherd! This affiliation preserved
services in New Berlin.
– Member of the audience
Chase Memorial Nursing and
Rehabilitation Center
Affiliations among not-for-profit, long term/post-acute care (LTPAC)
providers can help them to reduce overhead costs, expand access to
capital, improve the organizations’ referral relationships and position
them for value-based payment. Three LeadingAge New York members,
Good Shepherd Communities, Community Wellness Partners and MJHS,
described the benefits of affiliations in the panel discussion, Building Blocks
for Successful Long Term/Post-Acute Care Affiliations. The three panelists,
Jay Gormley, chief strategy and planning officer of MJHS, Michael Keenan,
president/CEO of Good Shepherd Communities and Michael Sweeney of
Community Wellness Partners, spoke of affiliating as a means to improve
efficiencies and scale in the face of growing pressure on bottom lines and
evolving Medicare and Medicaid payment arrangements.
Karen Lipson, LeadingAge New York EVP for innovation strategies, kicked
off the panel with a description of advantages and disadvantages of various
collaboration and affiliation options available to not-for-profit LTPAC
providers. They can be arranged on a continuum of increasing integration
from contracts to merger. The organizations on the panel had all engaged in
affiliations under a common parent.
Mr. Gormley focused on the recent affiliation of Isabella Geriatric Center’s
nursing home under MJHS as a passive parent. MJHS is an integrated
LTPAC health system, based in New York City, that offers a continuum
of services. He noted that the consolidation of New York City hospitals
into systems and the emergence of new payment arrangements are
pushing LTPAC providers to become preferred partners or integrate into
networks to maximize referrals. Pressure to affiliate is also coming from
managed care plans that are looking for providers to take on more risk.
Isabella offered MJHS an opportunity to expand its geographic reach into
Manhattan and make its system a more attractive partner for Manhattan-
based health systems.
Mr. Keenan described Good Shepherd’s passive parent affiliation with
Chase Memorial Nursing home in rural New Berlin. Chase had considered
selling its nursing to a proprietary entity, but the purchaser would not
have operated its other programs. Good Shepherd saw in Chase an
opportunity to preserve services in New Berlin, while spreading Good
Shepherd’s administrative costs over a broader base. Mr. Keenan stressed
the importance of early engagement with the board of the facility being
absorbed and a due diligence “deep dive”.
Mr. Sweeney discussed the affiliation of two formerly avid competitors
(continued)
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Adviser a publication of LeadingAge New York | Summer 2018