Silver Spring’s Holy Cross Health announced Thursday it will become a co-owner of a local Medicaid administrator in Montgomery County.
Maryland Physicians Care, a managed care group that administers health care plans to 176,000 Medicaid HealthChoice enrollees, will add Holy Cross to its four hospital owners.
MPC is already partly owned by Meritus Health, Western Maryland Health System, St. Agnes HealthCare and University of Maryland Medical Center Midtown Campus.
Regulators must OK the agreement. The hospital did not disclose financial information regarding agreement.
“This partnership is a vehicle to expand access and strengthen our capacity for service in light of the Affordable Care Act and the new Maryland health care environment,” Kevin J. Sexton, president and CEO of Holy Cross Health, said in a statement.
The hospital used to focus on patients who could not qualify for Medicaid and had few options, he said. Now the ACA has shifted a large number of patients to Medicaid. At the same time, Maryland revised its waiver system, he said.
“Changes in Maryland made this an event more important agreement. The new way we are going to keep score under the waiver when talking about managing care not just admissions, it takes a whole range of tools, some we think we have and others we think we need, Sexton said.
Last year, Holy Cross Hospital became part of CHE Trinity Health, created earlier this year when Trinity Health merged with Catholic Health East, creating a $13.3 billion company.
Construction started on Holy Cross Germantown Hospital in July 2012 and it is projected to open in October.
Related: What Maryland’s new waiver means outside of hospitals
