Independence Blue Cross and DaVita HealthCare Partners Announce Joint Venture

PHILADELPHIA, April 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Independence Blue Cross (Independence) and DaVita HealthCare Partners today announced the creation of Tandigm Health. This unique joint venture, based in Philadelphia, Pa., will help deliver high-quality, affordable care to the region by combining the expertise of one of the country's largest, most innovative Blue insurers and a nationally recognized pioneer of physician-centric coordinated care.

This joint venture is a first in the health care industry because it unites a major health insurer and a recognized leader in physician-led integrated care to establish a new company to improve quality and lower the costs of health care in one of the largest and most expensive health care markets in the United States.

"Great care starts with a trusting relationship between the physician and the patient," said Daniel J. Hilferty, president and CEO of Independence, which serves 8.2 million people in 24 states and District of Columbia. "This new company will work in tandem with primary care physicians to create a new paradigm of high-quality, affordable health care — Tandigm Health."

Jointly owned by Philadelphia-based Independence and California-based HealthCare Partners, a division of DaVita HealthCare Partners, Tandigm Health will partner with primary care physicians in the Philadelphia area to provide enhanced resources to help them deliver more personalized, high-quality care.

"Tandigm Health will reward doctors for the quality of care they provide, not the quantity of care," said Craig E. Samitt, M.D., CEO of HealthCare Partners, which serves 765,000 patients in five states. "This creates an incentive system based on improving quality and lowering costs that benefits everyone: patients, doctors, hospitals, and the community."

Independence and DaVita HealthCare Partners believe that this results-oriented approach will be especially well suited for the Philadelphia area. Southeastern Pennsylvania is one of the most expensive health care markets in the nation. According to Milliman data, hospital admissions in the Philadelphia region for people under 65 are the highest among the nation's largest metropolitan areas and 25 percent higher than the national average.

Anthony Coletta, M.D., a board-certified general surgeon, will serve as the president and CEO of Tandigm Health. Most recently, he served as senior vice president at Independence where he led the development of the Tandigm Health business plan. He previously served as the chief medical officer for Holy Redeemer Health System in Huntingdon Valley, Pa. He was an attending general surgeon for 25 years at Bryn Mawr Hospital, and served as a clinical associate professor of surgery at Thomas Jefferson Medical College and Drexel University in Philadelphia. He is also recognized as a pioneer in minimally invasive surgical techniques.

"We believe Tandigm Health represents the future of health care," said Dr. Coletta. "I'm very excited to begin working with doctors and to lead this physician-centric venture."

Tandigm Health will provide doctors with leading analytical tools and access to real-time data to help physicians and their patients better manage difficult chronic conditions such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, and pulmonary disease. In addition, the company will offer a range of services that can further enhance patient care outside the physician's office, such as providing more care in the home, especially for the frail and elderly.

With these additional resources, primary care doctors, specialists, and hospital systems who work with Tandigm Health will be better equipped to make critical decisions about patient care, reducing duplicate services, improving patient satisfaction, and helping to prevent health crises that cause emergency room visits.

About Independence Blue Cross
Independence Blue Cross is the leading health insurer in southeastern Pennsylvania. With our affiliates, we serve more than 8.2 million people in 24 states and the District of Columbia. For more than 75 years, we have been enhancing the health and wellness of the people and communities we serve by delivering innovative and competitively priced health care products and services; pioneering new ways to reward doctors, hospitals, and other health care professionals for coordinated, quality care; and supporting programs and events that promote wellness. To learn more about how we're changing the game, visit www.ibx.com. Connect with us on Facebook at ibx.com/facebook and on Twitter at @ibx. Independence Blue Cross is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.

About DaVita HealthCare Partners
DaVita HealthCare Partners, a Fortune 500® company, is the parent company of DaVita Kidney Care and DaVita HealthCare Partners. DaVita Kidney Care is a leading provider of kidney care in the United States and abroad, delivering dialysis services to patients with chronic kidney failure and end stage renal disease. As of December 31, 2013, DaVita Kidney Care operated or provided administrative services at 2,074 outpatient dialysis centers in the United States serving approximately 168,000 patients, and at 73 centers in ten countries outside of the United States. DaVita HealthCare Partners® manages and operates medical groups and affiliated physician networks in California, Nevada, Florida, Arizona and New Mexico in its pursuit to deliver excellent-quality health care in a dignified and compassionate manner. As of December 31, 2013, DaVita HealthCare Partners provided integrated care management for approximately 765,000 managed care patients. For more information, please visit DaVitaHealthCarePartners.com.

DaVita, HealthCare Partners, Tandigm Health, and DaVita HealthCare Partners are trademarks or registered trademarks of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. 

Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including statements related to prospective growth, development and strategy for our HealthCare Partners business unit ("HCP") and expected impact on quality of care and costs. These statements may be identified by words such as "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "estimates," "will," or words of similar meaning. Factors which could impact future results include the risks and uncertainties associated with expansion of HCP's operations and services to geographies outside of HCP's existing locations, general economic and other market conditions, competitive threats, risks that we might not effectively manage the HCP business unit and realize anticipated benefits, and the risk factors set forth in our SEC filings, including HCPs Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013. The forward-looking statements should be considered in light of these risks and uncertainties. We base our forward-looking statements on information currently available to us at the time of this release, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of changes in underlying factors, new information, future events, or otherwise.

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SOURCE Independence Blue Cross