GM Tests Direct-Source Healthcare Plan

General Motors Co. is promising certain workers in metropolitan Detroit lower healthcare costs and better service if they agree to handle all their medical needs through one hospital system.

The five-year deal with southeast Michigan’s Henry Ford Health System (HFHS) covers everything from doctor visits to major surgery. GM says it will offer the option to about 24,000 salaried employees and dependents in southeastern Michigan.

The scheme is an alternative to the usual healthcare approach, in which the company works through an insurer, who arranges prices with multiple doctors, hospital systems and clinics.

GM says that dealing directly with a healthcare provider will enable it to tailor services—same-day doctor appointments, for example—to its employee base. The approach also allows HFHS to evaluate new approaches to healthcare, pricing and billing without betting their entire business on the outcome.

The five-hospital HFHS network can win additional payments if it meets certain performance goals—and risks paying GM if it falls short, The Wall Street Journal reports. The newspaper notes that 11% of U.S. employers say they plan to set up similar direct deals next year, up from 3% who described similar intentions in 2017.