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Bridgeport's St. Vincent's Says Partnership Will Lower Costs, Enhance Care

BRIDGEPORT, CONN. -- St. Vincent’s Medical Center, a 397-bed acute care Catholic hospital in Bridgeport, is entering into a “unique” collaboration it says will help make health care more accessible and affordable.

St. Vincent's Medical Center, a member of a seven-hospital Value Care Alliance (VCA), is entering into an insurance partnership it says will lower costs and improve health care for patients.

St. Vincent's Medical Center, a member of a seven-hospital Value Care Alliance (VCA), is entering into an insurance partnership it says will lower costs and improve health care for patients.

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A member of the seven-hospital Value Care Alliance, or VCA, St. Vincent’s announced recently that, beginning Jan. 1, 2016, it will be part of a new co-branded health insurance plan offered by Aetna under the insurer's accountable care organization (ACO) agreements with the alliance and Hartford HealthCare.

The new ACO network will feature more than 5,500 physicians, 39 urgent care and emergency room locations, and 13 hospitals, providing access throughout Connecticut, the hospital said.

The plans will be marketed under the name Aetna Whole Health -- Hartford HealthCare & Value Care Alliance.

Residents who choose the plans will pay lower out-of-pocket costs, the hospital said. They will also benefit from the improved flow of information -- and resulting better coordination of care -- between the alliance and Hartford HealthCare hospitals and physicians, it added.

"This alliance accomplishes several things: it increases access to affordable, quality care and patients can expect a more highly coordinated, personalized level of care," said Dr. Stuart G. Marcus, St. Vincent’s president and CEO.

The VCA alliance comprises seven member hospitals and nearly 1,800 affiliated physicians in Fairfield, Litchfield, Middlesex, New Haven, and New London counties.

Six of the hospitals will be participating in the new insurance partnership, St. Vincent’s said.

They are Griffin Hospital in Derby; Middlesex Hospital in Middletown; St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport; and The Western Connecticut Health Network (Danbury Hospital, New Milford Hospital, and Norwalk Hospital).

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