Announcement
Neighborhood Health Plan and Partners HealthCare Announce Plans to Affiliate
Boston, MA - August 10, 2011 -Neighborhood Health Plan (NHP) and Partners HealthCare have announced that a Letter of Intent has been signed whereby NHP would become part of Partners HealthCare. Both NHP and Partners believe that combining the experience and expertise of both organizations will result in a stronger patient experience and address growing needs for care coordination and management, health equity, and the ability to help curb health care costs. Through this affiliation, these organizations will have the ability and flexibility to develop innovative patient- and family-centered models of care and craft new initiatives aimed at better managing care of complex conditions.
In making the announcement, NHP's President and CEO, Deborah C. Enos, shared the following message with employees:
For those of you who were unable to make today's company meeting, I want to be the first to let you know that the Neighborhood Health Plan Board of Directors, in alignment with me and our senior leadership team, has made the decision to sign a Letter of Intent with Partners HealthCare, whereby NHP would become part of Partners HealthCare. NHP will continue to exist as a legal entity.
I'm personally very excited about this new relationship and would like to give you some background on how we came to this decision. NHP has been engaged in seeking a strategic partner to further the strength and reach of our mission, to provide enhanced resources for community health centers and historically underserved communities, and to continue on our path of sustained growth. Critical to this endeavor was to choose a strategic partner in keeping with NHP's roots, mission, and future outlook.
The missions of NHP and Partners are very compatible. Our organizations and employees share a deep commitment to providing the highest quality, highest value, culturally competent and compassionate care that is accessible to patients and their families. We are both deeply committed to Community Health Centers and the belief that CHCs are a cornerstone of a cost-effective health care delivery system, particularly for the underserved. We also share a long-standing history of collaboration in serving the health care needs of low income and vulnerable populations in Massachusetts.
In today's health care environment, providers, hospitals, health insurers, and others are developing new relationships to help drive the delivery of high quality care and care coordination in a more cost-effective manner. As a leader both locally and nationally, NHP is no exception to this. And as a leading safety net managed care organization, we are in a strong position to pursue opportunities to ensure our goal of securing a positive future for our organization and the people we serve.
You may soon see news of this in the media. I want to emphasize that from here many steps must be taken in a process such as this to get to a positive and desired outcome in ensuring we attain our goal. I also want to urge each of you to continue to do the great job that you are doing. It is because of your dedication and excellence that NHP has been able to enter into these discussions and why Partners is excited to form this new relationship with us as well.
Deborah C. Enos
President and CEO
For more on the planned affiliation, please read our fact sheet 
. Additionally, find coverage from The Boston Globe.
©2012 Neighborhood Health Plan