Moutier, 28 October 2022 – New impetus for the Swiss healthcare system: With health insurer V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a acquiring a stake in Hôpital du Jura bernois SA (HJB), the latter is to become Réseau de l’Arc SA and to transform into a fully integrated care organisation for the Jura Arc region. On 1 January 2024, it will launch an alternative basic insurance product with full capitation.

Switzerland’s first integrated care organisation is being set up: The Swiss Medical Network, V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a and the Canton of Bern are joining forces to establish a new healthcare system for residents of the Jura Arc region that is groundbreaking in Switzerland. V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a Beteiligungen AG’s investment in Hôpital du Jura bernois SA will enable the new healthcare organisation to offer its own basic insurance product as an alternative to the traditional health insurance system. The healthcare organisation Réseau de l’Arc will manage the health capital of members who opt for this alternative product instead of their traditional basic insurance. The focus is on maintaining the health of members. Full capitation makes it possible to move away from today’s incentives for treatments that are as numerous and expensive as possible, and unites the interests of the Réseau de l’Arc service providers, which predominantly diverge in the current system. This eliminates current biases in the healthcare system, which are responsible for the explosion in costs and the ever-rising premiums.

The Swiss Medical Network, V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a and the Canton of Bern are putting their plans into action by jointly developing a fully integrated healthcare system. With hospital sites in Moutier and Saint-Imier, various medical centres and Pôle Santé Mentale, what it will be able to offer residents of the Jura Arc region will be a first in Switzerland: all medical services (prevention, basic care, hospital services and elderly care) from a single source, with a corresponding health insurance product. Réseau de l’Arc will gradually expand its healthcare range by integrating other healthcare service providers, for instance in outpatient care, and by means of strategic partnerships that are tailored to the needs of the individual members.

The underlying approach in the Réseau de l’Arc business model is inspired by Kaiser Permanente, the pioneer of integrated care on the west coast of the United States. In order to motivate all stakeholders (including insured persons) to act responsibly, the system of individual service remuneration is replaced by full capitation. The healthcare organisation and its various stakeholders therefore have a direct incentive to keep people healthy and to provide the most effective services for members when needed. Quantitative incentives are eliminated and all stakeholders are motivated to maintain the flow of information for more efficient care. This leads to greater efficiency and quality, and reduces costs. Kaiser Permanente and similar organisations around the world have already proven the efficiency of this model. With over 217,000 staff, including 23,000 physicians, Kaiser Permanente manages the health capital of over 12.5 million members. Ribera Salud has successfully operated a similar system in certain regions of Spain for over 20 years.

As a step towards the establishment of Switzerland’s first integrated healthcare organisation, V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a is acquiring a stake in Hôpital du Jura bernois SA, which is being renamed ‘Réseau de l’Arc SA’ and whose purpose will be expanded to include organisation of care, while its two hospitals revert to names that refer to their locations (Hôpital de Saint-Imier and Hôpital de Moutier). V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a’s participation will occur by means of an increase in capital, subscribed to by V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a Beteiligungen AG, and will not affect V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a’s basic and top-up insurance business. This makes V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a the healthcare organisation’s third anchor shareholder, alongside Swiss Medical Network and the Canton of Bern. As of 1 January 2023, Swiss Medical Network will be a minority shareholder once again, with a stake equal to those of V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a and the Canton of Bern.

“Together with Swiss Medical Network and the Canton of Bern, V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a is doing pioneering work in the Swiss healthcare sector,” points out Lorenz Hess, Chair of V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a’s Board of Directors. “On one hand, we are providing the first evidence from a specific care region showing that integrated care models can sustainably reduce cost structures. On the other hand, with Réseau de l’Arc, we are ‘close to the people’ and offering our customers in the Bernese Jura region innovative insurance solutions, tailored to their needs.”

“In V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a,” adds Antoine Hubert, founder and CEO of Swiss Medical Network, “we have found the ideal insurance partner with whom to realise our vision of creating the first organisation for integrated care in Switzerland. Our goal is to provide coordinated medical and insurance services in a single organisation so as to ensure better quality of care for our patients while helping to reduce costs. Several examples in Spain (Ribera Salud) and the USA (Kaiser Permanente) have proven that this is possible. With this first fully integrated healthcare organisation, we want to provide answers and offer solutions, so that in the future, all of Switzerland can benefit from a high-quality healthcare system with lower costs.”

For the Canton of Bern, Réseau de l’Arc is an important initiative for ensuring that basic medical care is also available in remote areas: “V⁠i⁠s⁠a⁠n⁠a’s investment in HJB and the development of Réseau de l’Arc underscore the importance of basic medical care in the Bernese Jura region,” says Cantonal Councillor Pierre Alain Schnegg, Director of Health, Social Affairs and Integration for the Canton of Bern. Schnegg adds that this participation of a new player in the capital of HJB has been approved by Bern’s Cantonal Council, and will strengthen medical care in the region, as well as driving its further development as a whole.

Once HJB’s share capital has been increased, work on the joint project will commence. Political stakeholders, the general public and regional service providers will be closely incorporated, so as to ensure that Réseau de l’Arc has widespread support and lasting success. The introduction of an alternative HIA-compliant Réseau de l’Arc basic insurance product is planned for the 2024 insurance year.

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Sandra Neeracher Lauper 
Head of Communications 
Swiss Medical Network 
+41 79 418 44 64 
media@swissmedical.net
 

Gundekar Giebel
Head of Communications
GSI, Canton of Bern
 +41 79 306 10 40
medien.gsi@be.ch