Boeing South Carolina employees will be able to choose a new kind of health coverage next year, one that runs through doctors and hospitals tied to Roper St. Francis Healthcare.
Boeing and Roper St. Francis announced the partnership Wednesday at an event at Boeing in North Charleston, The Post and Courier reported.
The Boeing Preferred Partnership option will be available to more than 6,000 Boeing employees in the Lowcountry and their eligible dependents starting Jan. 1, 2016, according to Roper St. Francis. Boeing’s current health care options will remain available.
The new option will be offered only through the doctors and hospitals of the Roper St. Francis Health Alliance, which the health system calls the first clinically integrated network in the Tri-County area. Roper St. Francis said it is the first time a health system has partnered with a large private employer in the Lowcountry to improve and maintain the health of employees and their families.
Jeff White, director of health care strategy for Boeing, said the company picked the alliance because “they are well respected, provide a broad geographical reach, and have demonstrated a commitment to transform how health care is delivered.”
“Boeing will continue to engage with other providers in the community in an effort to transform the delivery system with a goal of providing access to high quality care,” White said in Roper St. Francis’ announcement.
What employees get
Workers who choose the option will pay less out of each paycheck and less for primary care visits and generic prescription drugs, Roper St. Francis said.
They are promised same-day or next-day appointments for urgent primary care and appointments within three days for urgent specialty care. Other benefits include electronic messaging with their doctors, a customer service center and a 24-hour nurse line set up just for Boeing, online and mobile scheduling and test results, and help with preventive care and chronic disease management.
Boeing workers will still get their health insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, The Post and Courier reported. The partnership does not change the 2,300-square-foot clinic Roper St. Francis staffs at Boeing’s North Charleston campus for occupational medical needs.
Neither company disclosed the deal’s financial terms. Roper spokesman Andy Lyons and White would not discuss them, the newspaper reported.
How the network works
The alliance is made up of more than 600 independent and employed physicians who will work together to reduce costs while improving patients’ experience, according to Roper St. Francis. It aims to meet performance measures on chronic diseases, hospital readmissions, access and patient satisfaction.
Clinically integrated networks are relatively new and require providers to be more accountable for the cost and quality of their care, the health system said. The Post and Courier noted that the model follows the accountable care organization design made popular by the federal Affordable Care Act, and that results of such efforts elsewhere have been mixed.
In theory, the newspaper reported, Roper St. Francis profits by keeping Boeing workers well, and Boeing saves money by insuring a healthier workforce.
“We believe that delivering coordinated care to large populations is where the health care industry is headed,” Roper St. Francis CEO David Dunlap said at the announcement, according to The Post and Courier.
Dunlap said in the health system’s announcement that the health care marketplace “has never been more competitive.” He added, “We know our excellent physicians can deliver the highest value care for Boeing employees and improve the Tri-County population’s health.”
Beverly Wyse, vice president and general manager of Boeing South Carolina, called the partnership “a new and better approach to health care and how it’s delivered. It is more efficient and more effective,” the newspaper reported.
Boeing’s second such deal
It is the second agreement of this kind for Boeing, which announced a similar partnership last year with some of the Northwest’s largest health care providers in the Puget Sound area, Roper St. Francis said. That arrangement covers some 27,000 employees in Washington state, The Post and Courier reported.
Dr. Todd Shuman, chief physician officer of Roper St. Francis, said the health system wants to sign up more businesses. “We also look forward to providing this new coordinated, patient-centered approach to other employers in the area,” he said.
Hospital leaders said the Boeing deal will not limit access for other patients, the newspaper reported. Dunlap said any Roper St. Francis patient with an urgent need should be able to see a primary care provider within 24 hours or a specialist within 72 hours, with routine appointments within 10 days.
“We recognize that this is setting the bar high, and that we are currently not achieving this 100 percent of the time,” Dunlap said, according to the newspaper.
Roper St. Francis operates Roper Hospital on the Charleston peninsula, Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital in West Ashley and Roper St. Francis Mount Pleasant Hospital, and it plans a fourth hospital at Carnes Crossroads in Berkeley County. It has nearly 5,600 employees, the health system said.
