Non-profit health systems Advocate Aurora Health and Atrium Health announced plans to combine operations to form a new a joint operating company to be known as Advocate Health. The new organization will have a combined footprint across Illinois, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. It will serve 5.5 million consumers, operate more than 1,000 sites of care and 67 hospitals, employ more than 7,600 physicians and nearly 150,000 teammates, and have combined annual revenues of more than $27 billion.
Advocate Aurora Health is a large non-profit integrated health system. It serves more than 3 million consumers annually in Illinois and Wisconsin across more than 500 sites of care.
Atrium Health is a large non-profit health system with 40 hospitals and more than 500 care sites. It provides care under the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist name in the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, region, as well as Atrium Health Navicent and Atrium Health Floyd in Georgia and Alabama.
The combined organization will transition to a new brand, Advocate Health, with the Advocate Health and Atrium Health brands continuing to be used in their respective local markets. The new organization will be headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina while continuing to maintain a strong organizational presence in Chicago, Illinois; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, including a new institute for health equity located in Milwaukee. Wake Forest University School of Medicine will be the academic core of the combined entity. Existing assets will remain in each of the respective states.
A board of directors comprising an equal number of members from Advocate Aurora and Atrium Health will govern the enterprise. Edward J. Brown III, current chair of Atrium Health’s board of directors, will continue to chair the board of directors until December 31, 2023. Michele Richardson, currently chair of Advocate Aurora Health’s board of directors, will assume leadership for the immediately succeeding two-year term. Jim Skogsbergh, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Advocate Aurora Health, and Eugene A. Woods, president and CEO of Atrium Health, will serve as co-CEOs for the first 18 months, at which point Mr. Skogsbergh will retire and Mr. Woods will become the sole CEO.
The combined system will deliver nearly $5 billion in annual community benefit, including charity care and other forms of uncompensated and undercompensated care. A national leader in value-based care with 2.2 million managed lives across 15 Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), four Clinically Integrated Networks (CINs) and nearly 60 value-based contracts, the new system will employ more than 7,600 physicians – including a broad primary care platform that includes 2,600 providers with a significant virtual and in-person care offering. It collectively employs nearly 150,000 team members and serves as one of the nation’s 10 largest graduate medical education programs with nearly 2,000 residents and fellows across 172 programs.
This was reported by Atrium Health and Advocate Aurora Health on May 11, 2022, at https://atriumhealth.org/about-us/newsroom/news/2022/05/advocate-aurora-health-and-atrium-health-to-combine and https://www.advocateaurorahealth.org/news/advocate-aurora-health-and-atrium-health-to-combine (accessed May 18, 2022).
Contact information: Atrium Health, 1000 Blythe Blvd., Charlotte, North Carolina, 28203; 800-821-1535; Website: https://atriumhealth.org/campaigns/corp-com/advocate-health
Contact information: Advocate Aurora Health, 750 West Virginia Street, PO Box 341880 Milwaukee, WI 53234; 855-624-9366; Website: https://www.advocateaurorahealth.org/
