MedCare replicates winning model with new company

GREENSBURG, Pa. - MedCare Equipment Co.'s new company, MedCare Susquehanna Valley, further aligns its post-acute services with health systems to provide a full continuum of care for patients, says CEO John Sphon.

MedCare partnered with UPMC Pinnacle to open the company May 1 in Mechanicsburg, Pa.

“It gives hospitals an opportunity to provide another service for patients that they have involvement in,” he said. “It helps that transition from hospital to home.”

Owned by both entities, MedCare Susquehanna Valley operates as a separate company to provide respiratory and other HME to patients in the central Pennsylvania area. It's a familiar model for MedCare, which itself is a partnership comprising eight health systems, primarily in Pennsylvania.

MedCare's growth strategy: slow and steady, but spring into action when it finds the right partner. UPMC Pinnacle has more than 2,900 physicians and allied health professionals and 11,000 employees, outpatient facilities and eight acute care hospitals serving a 10-county area.

“We need to be looking at picking the right partners and supporting the right areas, and making sure that we have the infrastructure and the ability to do that,” Sphon said. “As a partner, we looked at what kind of care and quality they provide. We looked at the services, the physicians, the demographics. UPMC Pinnacle is top of class.”

Big picture, these partnerships position MedCare to take advantage of the increasing role of post-acute services in health care's shift toward value-based care.

“When you look at where all the dollars are spent in health care, the most expensive is the hospital and other facilities,” Sphon said. “The home is the safest and least expensive place to be, and it's where most people want to be. It's a matter of whether payers and others are willing to pay for that care.”