Stronger Together: How Marton Care IPA Is Building New Contracting Opportunities for Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers know what their communities need. They see patients waiting for appointments, families struggling to arrange home care, and individuals who need services from several organizations to stay healthy and independent.

Turning that knowledge into a productive conversation with a health plan can be difficult. An individual organization may have excellent services and available capacity, but limited time and resources to navigate payer contracting, communicate its value, and develop new relationships.

Marton Care IPA is bringing providers together to pursue those opportunities through a coordinated network.

We offer five years of free IPA participation to the following provider categories:

Article 28 facilities, including eligible diagnostic and treatment centers.

Article 31 mental-health providers.

Article 32 substance-use treatment providers.

Licensed Home Care Services Agencies (LHCSAs).

Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHAs).

Social adult day-care providers.

Our goal is to help participating organizations build stronger payer relationships, demonstrate their capabilities, and pursue contracting opportunities together.

Why a Connected Network Matters

An individual provider can address an important part of a patient’s needs. A connected network can help address the challenges that arise between services.

Consider an older adult who needs primary care, behavioral-health treatment, assistance at home, and structured community support. Those services may be available through separate organizations, each with different locations, schedules, eligibility requirements, and payer relationships.

For patients and families, the challenge is finding appropriate services and making those connections. For providers, it can mean considerable time spent locating partners and resolving access barriers. For a health plan, it can mean difficulty connecting a member with timely care across its network.

An IPA can help organize participating providers within a shared contracting framework while preserving each organization’s distinct role. That creates an opportunity to present health plans with a broader picture of available services and how those services could work together.

The value starts with practical information: who can provide care, where they operate, which services they offer, which populations they serve, and whether they have capacity for additional members.

Together, We Can Have Stronger Contracting Conversations

Health plans make network decisions based on member needs, geographic coverage, existing provider relationships, service availability, and other requirements.

A provider seeking a contract must explain how its organization fits those needs. A coordinated network can bring a wider set of capabilities to that discussion.

Participating providers may collectively offer:

Services across several neighborhoods or counties.

Primary care alongside mental-health and substance-use treatment.

Home-care and home-health capacity supporting members in the community.

Connections between clinical care and social adult day services.

Language capabilities and experience serving particular populations.

Appointment or service availability in areas with limited access.

These capabilities can give a payer a concrete reason to engage.

Marton Care IPA aims to support those conversations through organized contracting efforts and an accurate understanding of participating providers’ services. Rather than asking a health plan simply to add another provider, the network can explain which access needs its participants may be able to address.

Participation does not guarantee a payer contract, a particular reimbursement rate, or patient volume. Each opportunity depends on the payer’s needs, the participating organizations, applicable requirements, and the final agreement.

Five Years of Free Participation

Building a useful network takes participation from organizations with different strengths.

Marton Care IPA’s five-year free participation offer gives the listed provider categories an opportunity to join this effort without an IPA participation fee.

We want eligible organizations to contribute their experience, explain the contracting challenges they face, and help identify opportunities that deserve attention.

Providers already carry significant operating responsibilities. Staffing, credentialing, documentation, technology, and patient services all require resources. Our offer is intended to make IPA participation more accessible as we work to develop payer relationships and network opportunities.

Organizations considering participation should review the written participation agreement to understand the five-year offer, their responsibilities, and the terms governing their involvement.

What Each Provider Category Brings to the Network

The strength of a network depends on the services its participating organizations are authorized, equipped, and available to deliver.

Article 28 Facilities

Article 28 facilities can contribute clinical services within their approved scope, including primary care, specialty services, diagnostics, and other outpatient care, depending on the facility’s operating authority.

Their locations, clinical capabilities, staffing, and appointment availability can establish access points for members who need ongoing treatment.

For contracting discussions, those details matter. A payer needs to understand which services a facility can provide, which populations it serves, and how it could meet an identified network need.

Marton Care IPA wants to help participating facilities present those capabilities clearly and identify opportunities that match their actual services and capacity.

Article 31 Mental-Health Providers

Article 31 mental-health providers bring assessment, treatment, and other services within their authorized programs.

A network that includes appropriately licensed mental-health providers with verified capacity may be better positioned to discuss appointment access, continuity of treatment, and coordination with other treating organizations.

Relevant information includes treatment capabilities, populations served, service areas, appointment availability, and the ability to accept members covered by particular payer products.

These details help turn a general statement about behavioral-health access into a specific contracting proposal.

Article 32 Substance-Use Treatment Providers

Substance-use treatment often requires sustained engagement and connections with medical, behavioral-health, and community services.

Article 32 providers bring specialized capabilities within their authorized programs. Their participation can strengthen the network’s ability to describe available treatment options and identify potential access gaps.

Any contracting opportunity must reflect the provider’s licensed services, program requirements, staffing, and ability to serve the relevant payer population.

The network’s role is to understand those capabilities and help connect them with opportunities where they can be useful.

Licensed Home Care Services Agencies

LHCSAs help eligible individuals receive authorized services in their homes and communities.

For a health plan, useful information includes an agency’s approved service area, staffing capacity, language capabilities, experience with particular populations, and ability to begin authorized services.

An agency may have a contract but lack staff in a particular location. Another may have available caregivers but lack a payer relationship that would allow it to serve members who need help.

Understanding those differences can help the IPA pursue opportunities grounded in actual service availability.

Within a coordinated network, LHCSA services may complement clinic services, behavioral-health treatment, and other community support.

Certified Home Health Agencies

CHHAs contribute home-health services within their approved scope and applicable coverage requirements.

Their role is distinct from that of other home-care providers. Accurately describing those differences helps the network pursue appropriate contracting opportunities and communicate available services to payers.

Connections among CHHAs, treating clinicians, and other participating organizations may also support continuity after a hospital discharge or another change in a patient’s condition or care setting.

Contracting discussions should reflect each agency’s operating authority, service area, capacity, and the requirements of the applicable payer product.

Social Adult Day-Care Providers

Social adult day-care providers contribute structured community services and support within their program scope.

Their locations, accessibility, capacity, language capabilities, and experience serving participants can be relevant to payer discussions about community-based support.

Participation in the IPA can help these organizations communicate their capabilities alongside the clinical, home-care, and home-health services available through other network members.

The goal is to understand where these services fit and which contracting opportunities are appropriate for each organization.

Seeking Payer-Funded Solutions to Specific Problems

Marton Care IPA is seeking payer-funded pilot opportunities tied to identifiable network or access needs.

A pilot can give participating organizations and a health plan an opportunity to define a problem, agree on a limited scope, and evaluate the results.

Our starting question to health plans is:

“Our IPA offers five years of free participation to these provider categories. We’re seeking a payer-funded pilot to address a specific network or access gap. Which gap would you consider paying us to solve, and what results would your team need to see?”

That question invites a practical discussion.

A health plan may need additional providers in a particular geography. It may want more reliable information about appointment availability. It may identify difficulty connecting members with behavioral-health treatment or arranging appropriate services in the community.

The right proposal depends on the identified need and participating providers’ ability to meet it.

A useful proposal should explain:

The problem the payer wants addressed.

The member population and geographic area involved.

The participating providers and their available capacity.

The work each organization would perform.

The funding and operational resources required.

The measures used to evaluate results.

The timeline and responsibilities of each party.

These are opportunities Marton Care IPA is seeking to develop. They are not announcements of funded programs or executed payer commitments.

What a Pilot Could Measure

A useful pilot needs clearly defined goals and an agreed method for measuring progress.

Depending on the agreement and services involved, measures could include:

Time from a request to an available appointment.

Time from authorization to the start of a covered service.

Successful connections with an appropriate participating provider.

Completed visits or service initiation.

Continuity following a discharge or transition.

Member experience and satisfaction.

Accuracy of provider capacity and availability information.

The measures should match the problem being addressed. A pilot focused on appointment access, for example, should distinguish between offering an appointment, scheduling it, and completing the visit.

Any financial or shared-savings component would require additional agreement on the population, baseline, data sources, calculation methods, payment terms, and applicable requirements.

Performance discussions should consider access, quality, and appropriate care alongside financial results. Lower utilization alone does not establish that a program has improved care.

Your Existing Organization Remains Important

Joining a network begins with understanding how your organization operates today.

That includes your existing payer contracts, approved services, provider credentials, locations, staffing, and billing arrangements.

An IPA agreement does not automatically replace an existing direct payer agreement. Participation also does not mean every provider receives the same reimbursement methodology. Different provider categories may require different contracting schedules, credentialing processes, and payment terms.

Marton Care IPA’s goal is to develop opportunities that reflect those differences.

Before participating in a particular payer arrangement, providers should understand:

Which health-plan products are included.

Which services, locations, and clinicians are covered.

What credentialing or onboarding is required.

How referrals and authorizations are handled.

How claims are submitted.

Which agreement governs reimbursement.

What reporting and performance responsibilities apply.

Clear expectations help providers evaluate an opportunity and prepare to deliver the services they agree to provide.

Help Us Identify the Opportunities That Matter

Providers have valuable information that can shape the network’s priorities.

Marton Care IPA wants to hear about:

The counties and communities your organization serves.

Your licensed services, programs, and specialties.

Your current capacity and plans for expansion.

The populations you have experience serving.

Your language capabilities and accessibility features.

Your existing payer participation.

Contracting barriers affecting your ability to serve patients.

Provider relationships that would improve coordination.

This information helps identify where the network can offer value and which opportunities are realistic.

One provider may have available capacity in an underserved area. Another may bring specialized treatment, broader geographic reach, or experience serving a particular population.

Understanding those strengths allows us to build proposals around actual capabilities and identifiable payer needs.

Build the Network With Us

Marton Care IPA is inviting Article 28, Article 31, and Article 32 providers, LHCSAs, CHHAs, and social adult day-care organizations to explore participation.

Our five-year free participation offer reflects a commitment to bringing these organizations into the network as we pursue payer relationships and contracting opportunities.

We believe providers are better positioned to make their case when they can show how their services connect, where they can improve access, and what they can deliver together.

Contact Marton Care IPA to discuss your organization, review the participation agreement, and help shape the next contracting opportunity.