Hallmark Health affiliates with Tufts parent
Courtesy of Hallmark Health Systems
Medford-based Hallmark Health Systems affiliated with Wellforce, the parent of Tufts Medical Center, effective Jan. 1.
The Board of Trustees of Hallmark Health in Medford has voted unanimously to affiliate with Wellforce, the parent company of Tufts Medical Center in Boston.
The affiliation was effective Jan. 1, according to a statement released by Hallmark in December. It is designed to “increase residents’ access to high quality, affordable health care in their communities,” the statement said.
Wellforce is also the parent company of Circle Health, a Merrimack Valley provider that is anchored by Lowell General Hospital. Hallmark said it “maintains significant governance in the organization, equal representation on the Wellforce board, and significant oversight of those decisions that impact Hallmark Health services and promote local access to care.”
Hallmark had pursued a merger with the state's largest provider, Partners Health Care, in recent years, but it faced staunch opposition from former Attorney General Martha Coakley and other state officials, who said that allowing Partners to grow would likely raise the cost of health care in Massachusetts. Talks ended in December 2015 as a result. The deal with Wellforce skirts such opposition because it is not a merger.
Wellforce was founded in October 2014 with the joining of Circle Health and Tufts Medical Center. The organization said it has saved more than $5 million on supplies and services for its member providers, which include Wakefield Hospital and Lawrence Memorial Hospital of Medford, under Hallmark.
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