WellStar Joins Forces with Mayo Care Clinic

“Once the Affordable Care Act passed nationally, the WellStar system started looking at a handful of investment tools that we could use to assist us in making our own strategies and local decisions,” says Reynold Jennings, the president and CEO of WellStar.

Officials with the Mayo Clinic are happy with this arrangement.

An audio version of this story.

“This is about sharing our medical knowledge through various tools we’ve developed in our practice to help our physicians manage, knowledge and provide the best care more consistently to every patient,” says Dr. Stephen Lange, with the Mayo Clinic.

Collaborations like the one between WellStar and Mayo have been occurring frequently over the past few months.

“It’s just happening at a frantic pace where people are looking for dance partners…..whether it’s a merger or whether it’s a partnership with other health care organizations or even insurance companies,” says Andy Miller, the editor and CEO of Georgia Health News.

Miller, who says this acceleration is directly linked to the Affordable Care Act, says another local example of these partnerships came last month.

That’s when Emory Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield Georgia signed an agreement to become an Accountable Care Organization.