University of Houston and Humana Announce Long-term Strategic Partnership

College of Medicine continues to get commercial support

Together, the two organizations will create the Humana Integrated Health System Sciences Institute at the University of Houston, which will unite the university’s new College of Medicine, as well as the existing colleges of Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work and Optometry. A $15 million gift over 10 years from Humana will help defray start-up and operational costs for the College of Medicine, as well as fund endowed chairs for each of the five colleges.

The strategic collaboration is designed to graduate physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other health care professionals who are trained in population health and have a propensity for primary care and for working with the underserved.

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Great news. Thanks to Humana for this awesome gift.

Important points from that article:
University of Houston announced today a long-term strategic partnership to train the health care leaders of tomorrow with a focus on advancing population health, improving health outcomes and expanding the use of value-based payment models.
The establishment of value-based care clinic labs for University of Houston health sciences students and medical residents
Working with the University of Houston’s health sciences colleges will enable us to further our integrated care delivery model and substantially advance the science of primary care. Our missions perfectly align, and we are thrilled to be establishing this strategic relationship.”

Now, from Harris Health’s press report when they terminated their contract with BCM and UTH:

The two medical schools negotiate with Harris Health through a joint contracting entity, Affiliated Medical Services (AMS). Harris Health is dedicated to working with AMS and the schools to implement a patient-centered approach in which reimbursements would reward improvements in patient experience and clinical outcomes over providing an outdated fee-for-service structure.

Seems to me like UH is positioning itself nicely (intentionally or not) to become affiliated with Harris Health if it follows through with it’s value based care/population health ambitions. I hope this doesn’t buy Humana too much influence over the school though. I’ve never been a fan of health insurance companies.

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Thanks Humana!