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Michigan State forming new healthcare organization

The new organization was unanimously approved by the Board of Trustees on Friday morning.
Credit: Rod Sanford, Lansing State Journal

EAST LANSING - Michigan State University is separating out the MSU HealthTeam into its own organization.

MSU Health Care, as it will be called, will allow for more robust partnerships with hospitals and healthcare organizations across the state, said Norman Beauchamp, associate provost of health affairs and dean of the College of Human Medicine.

"One of the things we want to be able to do is provide comprehensive care for patients that come to us," Beauchamp said. "Some of that will be done by the team we have but, by now being able to form a larger network, we can make sure that we have comprehensive, integrated care."

As its own entity, MSU Health Care will be able to form joint ventures with for-profit companies, something that wasn't possible under the prior organization. It will function as a group practice, as the MSU HealthTeam did, with faculty from across the colleges of human medicine, osteopathic medicine and nursing.

MSU's Board of Trustees unanimously approved the change at its meeting Friday morning.

The new organization will include 260 providers from more than a dozen clinical departments at the university. It will seek non-profit 501(c)(3) status.

Splitting off into its own organization has been in the works for more than a decade, said Mike Herbert, CEO of the MSU HealthTeam.

"This is, I believe, long overdue," Herbert told the board.

MSU's College of Human Medicine has seven campuses across the state of Michigan, and another three for the College of Osteopathic Medicine, Beauchamp said.

The move won't have an impact on questions of liability because MSU sits as the organization's sole corporate member, Beauchamp said.

Contact RJ Wolcott at (517) 377-1026 or rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @wolcottr.

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