Summa Health To Seek New Partner, Industry Expert Sees Correction Coming

Akron-based Summa Health is looking for a partner.

Despite a solid year of growth since eliminating 300 jobs in 2017, Summa Health is questioning its long term viability because of reductions to health care reimbursements in key areas.

“(We’re) predicting that we’ll see about a half percent reduction from Medicare, which is about half of our patients,” said Summa interim president Dr. Cliff Deveny. “And we could see potentially up to a five percent decrease in reimbursement from the state in the Medicaid program.”

Those reductions coupled with improved outpatient services cutting into the hospital system’s inpatient revenue led Summa to seek a partner, which could be identified as early as the Spring.

Summa will officially begin its search October 1, with a goal of finalizing an agreement by the end of 2019.

Deveny praised Summa’s five year partnership with Mercy Health, but he said, with Summa’s improved finances and Mercy’s focus on multi-state health care, both parties decided the time was right for a split.

In response to a question about a change in state law allowing county hospitals to expand services into other counties, Deveny acknowledged Cuyahoga County’s MetroHealth could be a potential partner. He says Summa has compiled a list of about 30 to 40 hospitals in the region.

He also shared some characteristics Summa is looking for in a partner.

“One of the things we’re looking for is a partner that can add services to the community,” Deveny said. “So expanding the clinical services where people (now) have to leave the community and go to Cleveland or have to go to Columbus. Another would be to just broaden the footprint of the organization.

“An organization that has experience with population health and being accountable for the cost of care and making sure they're good stewards of the dollars,” he added. “And finally, being an academic institution and having a significant investment in residencies and teaching medical students.”

The concerns that are driving Summa to seek a partner -- the combination of reductions in reimbursements and increased outpatient services that are cutting into inpatient revenue -- might lead to a correction in the industry as a whole, but Baldwin-Wallace business professor Thomas Campanella says patients shouldn’t be overly concerned. 

“They should never have the idea that the sky is falling, that this is a devastating thing and look at it from a negative,” Campanella said. “All sectors go through this and I think at the end, the community and individuals will be better off for it.”