Valley Health System Joins Prestigious Collaborative of Best-in-Class Healthcare Organizations: New Jersey’s Healthcare Transformation Consortium

RIDGEWOOD, NJ, September 12, 2022 – Valley Health System today announced that it has joined the Healthcare Transformation Consortium (HTC), a collaborative of leading, independent health systems based in New Jersey who are working together to advance healthcare services for their employees and their dependents.

Valley joins the following members of the consortium: Atlantic Health System, CentraState Healthcare System, Holy Name Medical Center, Hunterdon Healthcare, Saint Peter’s Healthcare System, and Virtua Health.

Since its establishment, a key initiative of Consortium member organizations has been to collaborate to enhance the quality and affordability of the care it provides its more than 75,000 employees and their dependents. By leveraging their collective size and sharing information and best practices, member organizations are able to offer their employees and family members enhanced choice and access to care while reducing administrative costs.

The Consortium collectively bid out for third-party administration of their self-insured employee health plans and achieved significant improvements in medical, dental, and employee wellness offerings. Valley employees and their dependents will be able to take advantage of these benefits when it, too, adopts the use of the selected third-party administrator, Aetna, for its medical benefit plan in 2023. After achieving success, offering the healthcare benefit model to its own employees and their families, HTC hopes to offer the innovative new model to other New Jersey employers.

“We are proud to announce The Valley Hospital will be joining the Healthcare Transformation Consortium (HTC). The Valley Hospital is a high quality and well-respected organization that will be a welcomed addition to our membership,” said Patrick Gavin, Chairman of the Board, Healthcare Transformation Consortium, and President and CEO of Hunterdon Health. “On behalf of Hunterdon Health, we have seen tremendous value in being a member of the HTC, collectively providing medical benefits that have improved quality and lowered medical costs for our staff. The HTC continues to look at other efficiencies and enhancements that can be shared by all members, which will now include The Valley Hospital.”

The Consortium is also working together to investigate partnerships with key healthcare innovation companies, contract directly with providers -- as it recently did to offer employees access to services at all Recovery Centers of America -- and has a long-term vision of developing an aligned network of physician groups to broaden its offering of services statewide.

“Valley Health System is proud to join this group of organizations dedicated to enhancing healthcare for all New Jersey residents,” said Audrey Meyers, President and CEO, Valley Health System. “We look forward to working with the Consortium to offer our staff and their dependents enhanced medical benefits, and we hope to develop and implement additional Consortium strategies to innovate the care we provide to all those we serve.”  

“Valley is excited to join the Consortium and work with our like-minded peers,” said Robert Brenner, MD, President, Clinical Integration and Physician Enterprise, Valley Health System. “We are eager to have the opportunity to work with individuals who are among the best in the field to improve Valley’s services for both our employees, their family members, and the broader community.”

Valley Health System’s Meyers and Brenner will serve on the Consortium’s CEO Board of Managers. 

“Valley’s participation in the Healthcare Transformation Consortium could not come at a better time, as shifting healthcare policy, advances in health information technology, and continued evolution of payment models require increasing collaboration and partnership with our peers,” said Nisha Sikder, Valley Health System’s Vice President for Payer Strategies. “HTC really is the perfect forum to enable this type of engagement in our state.”

Sikder will serve on the Consortium’s Strategic Executive Council.