Allegiance Health is set to become an affiliate of the University of Michigan Health System, which, over the next seven years, will commit $100 million in new strategic investment at the Jackson-based health system.
The proposed affiliation, agreed to on Tuesday, would expand on existing collaborations between the two health systems. At the successful conclusion of the process, Allegiance Health will become part of the University of Michigan Health System and the University of Michigan.
“In UMHS, Allegiance Health has found a partner that shares our commitment and vision,” says Georgia Fojtasek, president and CEO of Allegiance Health. “By joining one of the state’s premier health care systems, Allegiance Health is building on our long-standing commitment to become a more effective and efficient organization, resulting in even higher quality and cost-effective health care for our community.”
Allegiance Health and UMHS already work together to provide radiation oncology services to cancer patients and heart care for both adults and children. A U-M Medical School faculty member serves as medical director for the clinically integrated network that includes Allegiance Health and community-based physicians.
Fojtasek says the proposed affiliation will give Allegiance Health enhanced access to new state-of-the-art technologies and data-driven care models, and enable physicians and other clinicians from both systems to work together to develop innovative approaches to patient care. It will also help Allegiance Health expand its services strategically, and coordinate care across the continuum of each patient’s needs. Allegiance Health would be able to achieve new efficiencies in operations and have better access to capital funding.
Under the proposed structure, Allegiance Health leaders and local community members will continue to represent local interests on governance committees and assess the future of Allegiance Health, together with leaders from UMHS.
The proposed relationship is the latest in efforts by UMHS to collaborate with other health systems across the state — though the proposed connection with Allegiance Health would be the first time UMHS has sought to bring another health system entirely into its structure. Other UMHS affiliates include MidMichigan Health and Trinity Health — Michigan
“Through these local partnerships, patients receive higher value, because they receive the right care, at the right time, in the right place, and in the most cost efficient manner,” says Ora Hirsch Pescovitz, M.D., CEO of UMHS and executive vice president for medical affairs at U-M.
