Hospitals celebrate partnership
Two Monterey County hospitals celebrated a partnership Friday that makes them co-owners of a Medicare management plan. It’s not a merger, they say, but an agreement to collaborate.
Leaders from Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System and Montage Health, the parent company of Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula, met with reporters to explain their ownership plans for the not-for-profit Aspire Medicare Advantage Plan.
Aspire provides hospital, physician and drug benefits in a single plan to Medicare-eligible patients.
The hospitals say their partnership will support a healthier populations, improve patient experience and reduce health care costs.
A spokesperson for SVMHS said the partnership is not a step toward a merger of the two hospitals, saying the two organizations will continue to cooperate on other initiatives such as diabetes.
