Penn State Hershey, PinnacleHealth receive board approval for new enterprise

The Penn State Board of Trustees approved a proposal to bring the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and PinnacleHealth System together to form a new health enterprise under the umbrella of Penn State Health. The PinnacleHealth System Board of Directors voted earlier in the week to also approve the plan.

The proposal still requires approval from the state Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Penn State and PinnacleHealth expect to file the required paperwork within the next few weeks. Both health systems will continue to operate independently and as normal until necessary approvals to join as members of the new enterprise are obtained.

The approval of the plan by the Board of Trustees is the latest step in formal discussions to expand collaboration between the two health systems, which began in November 2013. In June 2014, Penn State, Penn State Hershey and PinnacleHealth signed a letter of intent to bring the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, PinnacleHealth and their joint venture, Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute, together into a new health enterprise.

“This new health enterprise is a win for our patients, students, researchers and central Pennsylvania communities because we can offer our academic expertise and advanced care to a broader patient population,” said Dr. A. Craig Hillemeier, dean of Penn State College of Medicine, chief executive officer of the Medical Center, and Penn State’s senior vice president for health affairs. “PinnacleHealth and Penn State Hershey see this new health care enterprise through the same lens – that our longstanding individual commitments to quality and safety, combined into one health system, would give us the scale we need to continue to improve outcomes and reverse the trend of growing health care costs.”

Read more at Penn State Hershey Newsroom: http://bit.ly/1CDmtYi

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