The Northwest Ohio Health Partnership features the following benefits for all participants at all locations. (The organization noted in italic is the partner who oversees the provision of that benefit.

• Assured access to Hancock County area physicians - Network physicians
• Capped Fees - Network physicians
• Discounts & Overall Coordination - Blanchard Valley Regional Health Center and more than 50 network hospitals
• Pharmacy Benefit Management Option - OhioHealth Group
• Employee Orientation/Education & Personalized I.D. Card - Northwest Ohio Health Partnership Staff
• Monitoring for Continual Improvement - Use of Patient Satisfaction, Employer Satisfaction and Provider Satisfaction Surveys - Cost and Utilization Data
• Wellness - Employers recieve discounted wellness services for their employees from Blanchard Valley Hospital and Bluffton Hospital. 
• Local Field Office - Northwest Ohio Health Partnership
• Initial & ongoing credentialing to assure quality providers - OhioHealth Group

There are other managed care programs around. Why join the Northwest Ohio Health Partnership? The Northwest Ohio Health Partnership gives your employees access to hospitals within their own communities; places where many of them were born and had their own children; places with hundreds of years of experience in caring for the residents of Northwest Ohio. Some reasons why other companies have chosen the Northwest Ohio Health Partnership:

• Fully developed provider panel.
• Tertiary care in Columbus, Toledo, and the Cleveland Clinic
• Flexibility - accommodates varied benefit plans
• Physicians and employers involved in development
• Local Service
• A greater opportunity to control costs
• A true partnership - everyone who contributes receives benefits.

In 1993, Hancock County, Ohio employers, physicians and Blanchard Valley Hospital began to discuss ways to develop a health partnership. Their intent was to create an environment that would assure continued access to the highest quality, cost effective health care.

Accomplishing this goal would require a true partnership of all parties. The partners would include:

• Area employers who actively participate with the provider partners and who provide incentives in their benefit plan to steer patients to partnership providers.
• Area physicians who actively participate in the partnership guarantee access to care and agree to a fee schedule.
• A local field office providing overall coordination of the partnership.
• A panel of physicians who provide primary and specialty care and agree to a fee schedule.
• OhioHealth Group - A managed care organization providing administrative support including contracting with providers and purchasers, credentialing of providers, gathering and reporting of utilization and cost data and utilization management services. Additionally, Northwest Ohio Health Partnership employers have access to all OhioHealth Group hospitals, physicians and ancillary providers.
• All partners working with utilization and cost information to continually monitor and improve.

The following hospitals participate in the Northwest Ohio Health Partnership:

• Blanchard Valley Hospital
• Bluffton Hospital 
• Fostoria Community Hospital
• Wyandot Memorial Hospital
• Hardin Memorial Hospital
• Lima Memorial Hospital
• Tiffin Mercy Hospital
• Wood County Hospital

Regional Hospitals:

• Grant Medical Center - Columbus
• Riverside Methodist Hospital - Columbus
• University Hospitals, OSU - Columbus
• Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital - Columbus
• Children's Hospital - Columbus
• St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center - Toledo
• Mercy Children's Hospital - Toledo
• Cleveland Clinic - Cleveland 

Improving your health can only be achieved by providing access to quality, cost-efficient health care. Blanchard Valley Hospital and Northwest Ohio Employers worked in cooperation with OhioHealth Group to develop a partnership that includes:

• You and Your Employer
• A Network of Hospitals and Physicians.

Your Involvement in the Partnership

Health care costs continue to climb at a dramatic rate. As a result, providing health care benefits becomes increasingly expensive.

To realize savings, it will be necessary for you to become more involved in the selection of health care services. You are encouraged to choose physicians and hospitals who are participating partners in the network as services are needed. Utilizing these providers allows you and your family to receive high quality health care at the most attractive benefit reimbursement level.

Benefits to You and Your Family

By taking advantage of the Northwest Ohio Health Partnership and utilizing OhioHealth Group providers, you benefit from fewer hassles and reduced out-of-pocket expenses.

• High quality, cost-effective care
• Virtually no claim forms to file
• Savings on hospital charges
• Protection from charges over reasonable and customary
• Services are convenient with local physicians and hospital
• Specialty care in Columbus, Toledo, and Cleveland Clinic
• Northwest Ohio Health Partnership is part of a managed system of health care including thousands of physicians and over 55 hospitals.
• You will help your plan save money and be better able to protect your health care program.

Getting Started

You will soon be receiving your new health benefit identification card from your employer. Always carry it with you and present it to your health care provider.

OhioHealth Group physicians and hospitals have agreed to file your claim form for you. Additionally, physicians will not bill you for charges over reasonable and customary.

Your employer and Northwest Ohio Health Partnership work together, as partners, to continually improve service.

Our Mission - to continually improve the health status of the community.

We can achieve our mission by providing access to quality, cost-efficient health care. Northwest Ohio employers have worked with Blanchard Valley Hospital, Bluffton Hospital, and other health care providers in the past to deliver a high level of service to employees.

Over 10 years ago, area employers began asking Blanchard Valley Hospital to further assist them in controlling costs, while still maintaining the quality of care their employees had come to expect. Meeting the challenge wasn't difficult, especially if you think in terms of a partnership - among employers, hospitals, physicians and employees.

The resulting managed care partnership, the Northwest Ohio Health Partnership, has many components and can be tailored to the specific needs of your company. Presented here is an overview of the program and the benefits you can expect from it.

The Challenge :

Traditionally, employers had shopped for health care without much guidance. Many had found themselves in a "mall" of health services, choosing randomly what they felt was the best care. This method of selecting services resulted in an average of 15% annual increase in health care costs in recent years. The employers' response has been to either:

1. Absorb the cost and pass it along to the consumer by charging more for their product or service;
2. Limit employee benefits; or
3. Increase employee share of payment.

The Solution

Northwest Ohio Health Partnership manages health care utilization to improve the quality, and control costs. Employees get the best, most appropriate care and have less out-of-pocket expense. Everyone wins.

Northwest Ohio Health Partnership doesn't limit the employee's choice of providers, but builds in incentives to make the right choices ... choices that direct them to high quality, efficient providers.

Most providers have worked hard to keep their charges reasonable. However, with 5% of northwest Ohio employees spending 50% of the health care dollars, employers saw the need for more cost control, education, and guidance. But how could this be accomplished without sacrificing quality, dollars, or employee satisfaction?

A Partnership

A team approach is used to help you lower your costs and still provide a benefit plan that satisfies your employees. Being a partner in the Northwest Ohio Health Partnership assures employers access to managed care at the lowest possible cost.

What is a PPO?

• A PPO network is a group of carefully selected doctors, hospitals and other types of providers who have agreed to work with employers to provide cost-effective, high quality health care.
  
  The Northwest Ohio Health Partnership is a Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) designed especially for employers in Northwest Ohio. The PPO includes hospitals and physicians who serve patients in this region of the state. OhioHealth Group, based in Columbus, administers the PPO network by holding the contracts and credentialing more than 5,000 physicians and 55 hospitals. Primary/secondary hospital care is available at Blanchard Valley Hospital in Findlay and Bluffton Hospital; Lima Memorial Hospital, Lima; Fostoria Community Hospital, Fostoria; Wood County Hospital, Bowling Green and Wyandot Memorial Hospital, Upper Sandusky. Specialty care is available at Grant/Riverside, University Hospitals, OSU, and Children's Hospitals in Columbus; St. Vincent and Toledo Hospitals, Toledo; and at the Cleveland Clinic. Transplant procedures are performed at University Hospitals in Columbus and at the Cleveland Clinic.

How do I know if my physician is in the PPO network?

• You can check the OhioHealth Group Directory or the Northwest Ohio Health Partnership listing of area physicians. The OhioHealth Group directory is published on a regular basis. The Northwest Ohio Health Partnership listing of physicians is published bi-monthly and is distributed to your human resources department. Additionally, you can check this website which is updated monthly.

What if my physician is not listed in the directory or the current listing?

• The PPO is always in the process of recruiting and credentialing area physicians. If your physician is not listed, please ask your human resources department for a Northwest Ohio Health Partnership physician request form. The PPO will let your employer know if your physician is in the process of being recruited. If your physician is on staff at a PPO hospital and meets credentialing requirements, the PPO will be pleased to send an application. For questions regarding this process, call the Northwest Ohio Health Partnership office at (419) 427-0090.

What is the advantage of using the network?

• Cost savings to you and your employer
• Your network providers will submit the claims for you.
• All provider payments will go directly to the provider.
• You will not be billed for charges over the OhioHealth Group fee schedule.
• Northwest Ohio Health Partnership also helps assure quality care because all network providers and hospitals are screened and evaluated by OhioHealth Group on an ongoing basis.

What if I get medical care from a health care provider who is not in the PPO network. Am I still covered?

• Yes. Where you receive health care coverage is always up to you. If you receive care within the network, however, you will receive a higher level of benefit coverage.

How do doctors and hospitals know if I am in the Northwest Ohio Health Partnership?

• When you go to a health care provider ALWAYS show them your health benefit identification card. Carry it with you at all times. Health care providers use information on your card: (1) to determine your PPO; (2) to confirm your eligibility; (3) to call for precertification, if needed, and (4) to know where to send claims.

What if I have an emergency or get sick while I'm on vacation?

• If you use a non-network provider on an emergency basis, or are in need of urgent care while traveling, you will still be covered - if it's considered to be a true emergency or urgent need for health care.

If there is a problem with a claim, whom do I contact?

• Call the claims payer listed on your card.

Any further questions? Call (800) 455-4460 or (419) 427-0090