The creation of a dual-role position at Partners HealthCare and Neighborhood Health Plan is designed to boost population health efforts at the integrated health system.
With the announcement of a C-Suite appointment, Partners HealthCare and the Boston-based health system's insurance business unit are stepping up their population health game.
Douglas Thompson, MPP, will be serving as Partners' vice president of population health finance and CFO of Neighborhood Health Plan, according to a statement released Monday by the integrated health system.
In addition to supervising the financial operations of NHP, he will help coordinate population health efforts at Partners and the health plan.
"Thompson will provide leadership on integration and advancement of new population health models, including payment mechanisms and investments, with the goal of keeping members and patients healthy by avoiding the need for emergency room visits or costly hospitalizations," according to the health system.
The dual role is a new position at the integrated health system. The post was created in response to "changes in healthcare that require providers and insurers to share the financial risk for treatment outcomes as the industry evolves from a traditional fee-for-service payment system to an alternative system based on defined budgets calculated to meet individual patient needs."
Thompson had been serving as interim CFO of NHP since November 2014. He has prior experience in several healthcare CFO roles, including serving as the Medicaid CFO for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 2007 to 2009.
Partners was founded in 1994, in an affiliation deal between Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. Today, the health system operates five acute-care hospitals in Greater Boston, a critical access hospital on Nantucket, a behavioral health hospital, and NHP.
Partners reported total operating revenue at $11.7 billion last year, according to the health system's 2015 Annual Report.
NHP, which was incorporated in 1986, provides health coverage for more than 450,000 commercial beneficiaries and Medicaid enrollees. The Massachusetts Division of Insurance approved Partners' acquisition of NHP in September 2012.