The advancement of value-based care cannot and should not exist solely in a payvider model, Intermountain Health CEO Rob Allen argued in an interview last week. Having its own health plan made things “a little easier” when Intermountain began getting serious about at-risk contracts, but achieving success in value-based care “is more about your commitment to the approach” and forging strong relationships with payers of all types.

Last week, New Mexico-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services and Midwest-based UnityPoint Health signed a letter of intent to merge. One consultant thinks these kinds of announcements will continue in the coming years, but a significant chunk of these intended mergers will end up being called off due to health systems realizing they’re not ready to make the sacrifices needed to reap the benefits of a megamerger.

Intermountain Health recently struck a partnership with experience management company Qualtrics. The Salt Lake City-based health system is implementing Qualtrics’ platform across all its facilities to optimize research around the customer and employee experience.