Program gives employees of Walmart and Lowe’s access to top Johns Hopkins experts

In an effort to provide excellent knee and hip replacement care for their employees while gaining more predictability in their costs, Walmart, Lowe’s and other large employers have joined the Pacific Business Group on Health Negotiating Alliance to launch a National Employers Centers of Excellence Network. Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center is the only hospital on the East Coast selected to be part of the network.

When employees of those companies choose to have their knee and hip replacement surgeries at Johns Hopkins Bayview, they will not incur any costs. Consultations and care will be covered at 100 percent. Also, the companies will cover the travel and lodging expenses of each patient and a companion to travel to Baltimore for the procedures.

“We are very pleased to provide excellent, patient-centered care for employees covered under this agreement who are seeking hip and knee replacements,” says Patricia M.C. Brown, president of Johns Hopkins HealthCare LLC, the managed care arm of Johns Hopkins Medicine. “The joint replacement team at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center provides the highest quality of care for primary, complex and revision surgeries using the latest technology and best practices, which should enable employees to recover and return to work as soon as possible.”

The new National Employers Centers of Excellence Network covers more than 1.5 million employees and their dependents enrolled in the employee medical plans of Walmart, Lowe’s, and some other large employers. Besides Johns Hopkins Bayview, the other hospitals are Kaiser Permanente Orange County Irvine Medical Center in Irvine, Calif.; Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Mo.; and Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, Wash.  

David Lansky, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Business Group on Health, says, “The National Employers Centers of Excellence Network is designed to serve as a model for delivering high-quality health care with transparent and predictable costs.”

Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center is part of Johns Hopkins Medicine, a $6.7 billion integrated global health enterprise based in Baltimore, Md., and one of the leading health care systems in the United States. 

Johns Hopkins also is a center of excellence for PepsiCo, the world’s second-largest food and beverage company. Under that travel surgery benefit, PepsiCo waives deductibles, and co-insurance pays the travel and lodging expenses for employees and their dependents who come to Johns Hopkins for heart and joint replacement operations.