Becker's Hospital Review

26 26 CEO/STRATEGY Surgical Care Affiliates, OptumCare to Merge By Scott Becker and Mary Rechtoris D eerfield, Ill.-based Surgical Care Affiliates is merging with Optum, a health services company and part of UnitedHealth Group. Here are six key points. 1. rough the partnership, SCA will became a part of Optum's plat- form, which serves millions of U.S. customers via 20,000 affiliated phy- sicians and hundreds of facilities spanning the nation. SCA is com- bining with OptumCare, Optum's primary and urgent care delivery services business. OptumCare works with more than 80 health plans. 2. Andrew Hayek, SCA's chairman and CEO, and SCA executives will continue leading SCA and the Optum platform. 3. e companies expect the transaction to close in the first half of this year. Under the agreement, Optum will acquire SCA's outstand- ing common stock for $57 per share. UnitedHealth Group's common stock will fund between 51 percent and 80 percent of the acquisi- tion and the remainder will be paid in cash. TPG affiliates, owning approximately 30 percent of SCA's common stock, will tender their shares as part of the offer. 4. e combination provides for a fascinating new look at how doctors, payers and surgery centers may relate to each other and the market in a changing healthcare world — a world that is likely to change a lot again in the next few years. 5. e combination of the nation's largest payer and its largest pure play ASC company is an indication of how much the healthcare de- livery system has moved from inpatient to outpatient. e combina- tion builds on relationships that have evolved between UnitedHealth Group and SCA throughout the country and world. 6. The transaction and the scale of SCA is a tribute to the lead- ership of Mr. Hayek, the team, company and partnerships he has built at SCA. Both companies approach the transaction from a ter- rific position of strength. The deal brings together two very smart companies. "Joining with OptumCare will enable us to better support and em- power independent physicians, helping them provide high-quality care for their patients while making healthcare more affordable. The combination of SCA and OptumCare is another step forward toward our vision of becoming the partner of choice for surgeons," said Mr. Hayek. "We already have a strong relationship with Op- tumCare, so we have seen firsthand that our cultures and strate- gies are aligned and complementary." n Geisinger CEO Dr. David Feinberg: 'I'd Like To Eliminate the Waiting Room and Everything It Represents' By Tamara Rosin J aws dropped last November when Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger Health System CEO David Feinberg, MD, announced the organization would begin offering re- funds to patients for less than satisfactory experiences. The refund program, called ProvenCare, is clearly favorable among patients, but it's also valuable to the hospital, for it provides clinicians and administrators candid insight into the patient perspective. The most common complaints Geisinger has heard from patients center around poor communication from the care team, environmental complaints and confusing medical bills, Dr. Feinberg wrote in a December LinkedIn post. But by far, the most pressing complaint among patients is long wait times, especially in the emergency department. "Personally, I'd like to eliminate the waiting room and ev- erything it represents," Dr. Feinberg wrote. "A waiting room means we're provider-centered — it means the doctor is the most important person and everyone is on their time. We build up inventory for that doctor — that is, the patients sit- ting in the waiting room." People who come to the ED are already sick and suffering — forcing them to wait long stretches of time to get care just adds to their suffering, according to Dr. Feinberg. Because of this, "Our ultimate resolution is to reduce the wait time in the emergency rooms at Geisinger facilities to zero min- utes, and I really think we can accomplish this in two years," he wrote. Dr. Feinberg outlined what a zero minute wait time in the ED would look like. Treatment would begin as soon as pa- tients enter the ED "because remember, it's an emergency," he wrote. This would probably involve hiring more physi- cians and introducing online registration. Additionally, ER waiting rooms could be transformed into additional clinical space where physicians could treat patients. "I think our industry is ripe to be disrupted," Dr. Feinberg concluded. "And it's going to be disrupted because there's so much we do that doesn't add value. Waiting rooms have never cured anybody. They're really not fun when your wife has just suffered a stroke. Treating people like a number is fine at the DMV because you don't have to go there all the time. It's not right in the healthcare system." n

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