Friday, March 27, 2015
CINCINNATI, OH – HealthBridge has merged with The Greater Cincinnati Health Council and the Health Collaborative into a single organization, effective March 25, 2015. With the final adoption of the boards this week, the merger is now official under the name The Health Collaborative.
HealthBridge, a not-for-profit corporation based in Cincinnati, has been recognized as one of the nation’s largest, most advanced, and most financially sustainable health information exchange (HIE) organizations for well over a decade. HealthBridge delivers sophisticated business intelligence and data analytics tools to enable stakeholders to make smarter decisions to that enhance patient care and lower health care costs.
The merger follows the successful 2012 partnership that combined executive leadership and the administrative operations of HealthBridge, the Greater Cincinnati Health Council, and the Health Collaborative. The merger is designed to allow HealthBridge to better integrate quality improvement and data analytics in the Greater Cincinnati market while continuing to serve its national customers with innovation and technology solutions.
“Each of the three separate organizations independently created exciting new programs and services that brought benefit to our region, but at times we were duplicating effort or finding that we missed opportunities to explore solutions that leveraged the talent and technology from all three organizations,” said Craig Brammer, CEO of all three organizations. “As CEO, I could see the potential for better alignment, but with the separate legal structures, it was challenging to form the right teams.”
The Greater Cincinnati Health Council is a member organization serving health systems, hospitals, long term care facilities and select business partners. The Health Collaborative is a multi-stakeholder convening organization, delivering cross-sector solutions and health improvement pilot projects to the region. Combined, the three organizations have brought over 70 – million dollars of public and private health care improvement funding to the Greater Cincinnati region to leverage quality improvement, payment transformation and technology.
“The unique linkage of these three nonprofits will further expand the synergies between local and regional health care providers and systems, equipping them to take advantage of a nationally recognized health information exchange that will provide innovative technology solutions in the health care field,” said William Kent, Co-Chair of the HealthBridge Board of Trustees and Senior Vice President for Infrastructure and Operations at Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center.
“I applaud the work of The Health Collaborative, the Greater Cincinnati Health Council, and HealthBridge as they embark on a successful merger that will provide a unique opportunity to deliver improved health and better care outcomes at a lower cost for the Greater Cincinnati community,” said Erin Hoeflinger, Chair of the Health Collaborative Board of Trustees and President of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Ohio.
As a merged entity, there will be a single budget, executive team, and board of directors, allowing staff and resources to be targeted more effectively. The merged organization will be better poised to drive innovation in Greater Cincinnati and demonstrate the kind of transformative change that will serve as a model for the rest of the country.
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About the Health Collaborative:
The Health Collaborative is a non-profit organization that strives to positively impact health status, experience, outcomes, and affordability by fostering a connected system of health care and community health through innovation, integration, and informatics in the greater Cincinnati region. For more information about the Health Collaborative, visit www.healthcollab.org.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Shannan Schmitt
Director of Communications
(513) 307-0328
