Rhode Island’s largest hospital group is negotiating a deal to expand its network of primary care providers in the state by partnering with Coastal Medical.
Lifespan is a nonprofit which operates Rhode Island Hospital. Coastal Medical is an independent, physician-owned primary care group, the organizations said in a statement released Thursday.
Lifespan and Coastal officials said they have signed a “letter of intent,’’ the first step in any affiliation or merger. A “definitive agreement” is expected before the end of the year, the statement said. Lifespan said the deal is not expected to require regulatory approval. No job losses are anticipated.
Details of how the two organizations will be governed are still being worked out, but “the letter of intent envisions that Coastal will be joining the Lifespan system,’’ Dr. Alan Kurose, president and CEO of Coastal Medical said in an interview.
Lifespan is the state’s largest private employer; with 15,675 employees reported in its 2018 annual report, the most recent available data.
Coastal Medical is a physician owned and governed primary care group with over 125 primary care physicians and more than 500 employees in 20 offices around Rhode Island.
“We are incredibly excited about this partnership, and about bringing Coastal and Lifespan on the same team,” Dr. Timothy J. Babineau, Lifespan’s president and CEO, said in an interview Thursday. “Ultimately this is going to be better for the patients we serve, and ultimately that’s why we’re doing it.”
In addition to Rhode Island Hospital and its children’s hospital, Hasbro, Lifespan operates The Miriam Hospital, Bradley Hospital and Newport Hospital as well as Gateway Healthcare.
Coastal is among a newer model of provider groups which use a payment system that rewards providers for keeping patients healthy. These so-called Accountable Care Organizations, encouraged under the federal Affordable Care Act, are designed as an alternative to the traditional fee-for-service model payment system.
If the deal goes through as planned, Coastal will be able to “better advance coordination of care and give patients a more seamless experience of care” from doctors’ offices to hospitals, Dr. Alan Kurose, president and CEO of Coastal, said in an interview. Coastal also would adopt Lifespan’s electronic medical records system, known as EPIC, to improve sharing of records between primary care doctors, specialists and hospitals.
The joint announcement follows last summer’s efforts by Governor Gina M. Raimondo to try to do what no previous state leader has managed to do: unite Rhode Island’s two largest hospital groups — Lifespan and Care New England — into one unified health system.
Ramondo’s efforts prompted Boston-based Partners HealthCare to agree to back off its plan to acquire Care New England — a deal that would have edged out Lifespan as the state’s largest hospital system. But by last July, negotiations between the leaders of Lifespan and Care New England had broken off.
