HealthPartners
Encyclopedia
HealthPartners is an integrated, nonprofit heath care provider located in Bloomington, Minnesota
Bloomington, Minnesota
Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern...

, offering a number of different heath care plans. It is the largest consumer-governed, nonprofit health care organization in the United States.

History

HealthPartners started in 1992, when Group Health and MedCenters Health Plan were merged into a single organization. Its history includes the creation and endorsement of several programs not previously available or popular in the area, such as a certified nurse midwife
Nurse midwife
In the United States, a Certified Nurse-Midwife is an Advanced Practice Nurse who has specialized education and training in both Nursing and Midwifery. CNM's function as primary healthcare providers for women and most often provide medical care for relatively healthy women, whose birth is...

 program, corrective eye
Human eye
The human eye is an organ which reacts to light for several purposes. As a conscious sense organ, the eye allows vision. Rod and cone cells in the retina allow conscious light perception and vision including color differentiation and the perception of depth...

 surgeries, dental sealants and specialized treatment for burn victims.

Leadership

Mary Brainerd has been the president and chief executive officer since 1992. Thomas Brinsko is the chairman of the 15-member board of directors.

Nonprofit health care

The group operates as a nonprofit health care provider, serving 1.25 million medical and dental health plan members nationwide. The organization has ownership of its own medical facilities and employs a staff of salaried physicians.

The cost of medical care for HealthPartners members is said to be 8 percent lower than the state average and as much as 38 percent lower than the national average. . Senator Amy Klobuchar
Amy Klobuchar
Amy Jean Klobuchar is the senior United States Senator from Minnesota. She is a member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, an affiliate of the Democratic Party...

 (D, Minn.) has praised HealthPartners for emphasizing value over volume of care.

Health plans

HealthPartners offers a range of health coverage that includes national networks, open-access networks, tiered networks, co-pay plans, deductible plans, self insured plans, Medicare plans, individual plans, dental plans and consumer-driven health plans including health savings accounts. As one of the region's largest open-access health care networks, HealthPartners offers members access to more than 36,000 providers and 200 hospitals in the Midwest. Its national network includes more than 650,000 providers and 6,000 hospitals. HealthPartners also offers benefits such as online patient services, mail-order pharmacy, wellness coaching, discounts on fitness equipment and weight loss programs.

Clinics and hospitals

HealthPartners Medical Group includes 25 primary care clinics, nine specialty care clinics, eight urgent care clinics, 17 pharmacies, six eye care centers and 16 dental clinics. HealthPartners also operates Regions Hospital
Regions Hospital
Regions Hospital is a teaching hospital located in St. Paul, Minnesota, part of the HealthPartners system,. The hospital is an ACS verified Level I Trauma Center, and was Minnesota's first pediatric level one trauma center...

, a private, full-service, 427-bed hospital in St. Paul. The freestanding, 27-clinic HealthPartners Specialty Center is also located in St. Paul; hospice
Hospice
Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...

 services are provided at Hospice of the Lakes in Minneapolis.

Outside the Twin Cities, HealthPartners operates HealthPartners Central Minnesota Clinics (serving the St. Cloud area), Westfields Hospital (a hospital in New Richmond, Wisc.) and the Hudson Hospital & Clinics (offering primary, specialty and emergency services in Hudson, Wisc.).

Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, MN is also part of the HealthPartners Family of Care

Workplace clinics

HealthPartners operates on-site health clinics for employees of four different organizations: Hennepin County, Grede Foundries, TURCK and Wilson Tool International. As of early 2009, the average cost of on-site treatment at the downtown Minneapolis clinic for employees of Hennepin County was 9 percent less than a typical outside clinic visit.

Awards and recognition

The network of clinics and health plans won the National Quality Healthcare Award in 2007.

U.S.News & World Report/NCQA rated HealthPartners among the top 50 best commercial health plans in the nation for four years in a row (2005–2008).

In 2006, HealthPartners received the American Medical Group Association's national Acclaim Award for excellence in patient care.

Modern Healthcare named HealthPartners one of the best places to work in health care.

HealthPartners is the national benchmark in seven areas in a 2008 report sponsored by the National Business Coalition on Health.

HealthPartners ranks “Highest in Member Satisfaction among Commercial Health Plans in the Minnesota-Wisconsin Region” according to J.D. Power and Associates' 2008 National Health Insurance Plan Study.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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