Several local surgeons with independent private practices in Irvine, Aliso Viejo, Newport Beach and Tustin have formed Newport Irvine Surgical Specialists.
Newport Irvine Surgical Specialists will consolidate its operations at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian’s campus at 510 Superior Ave. in Newport Beach. The group represents surgeons who work out of Hoag’s campuses in Newport Beach and Irvine, along with those affiliated with Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley.
Newport Irvine Surgical Specialists said it will announce more locations as additional doctors become part of the group. Specialties include advanced laparoscopic surgery, as well as colorectal, breast, endocrine and trauma surgeries.
Group founders said changes in the delivery of medicine prompted their move. The surgical-specialists group aims to create an alternative to doctors leaving private practice and becoming employees of larger organizations.
“The new landscape needs significant physician leadership to be shaped positively,” said Lincoln Snyder, a breast surgeon and the group’s founding president.
Healthcare reform has fueled a trend toward integration and consolidation among doctors and hospitals. MemorialCare Health System, a Fountain Valley-based hospital operator, acquired Nautilus Healthcare Management on undisclosed terms in February. Nautilus provides services for Newport Beach-based Greater Newport Physicians.
Greater Newport and its 400 doctors also affiliated with MemorialCare Medical Foundation, a medical management organization that works with physician groups in Orange County and Los Angeles.
Diane Laird, Greater Newport’s chief executive, said her group has worked with the Newport Irvine Surgical Specialists doctors individually for a number of years.
Another deal saw UnitedHealth Group Inc., a Minnesota managed-care company with a large operation in Cypress, buy the management arm of Irvine-based Monarch HealthCare, A Medical Group Inc., last fall. UnitedHealth’s health services business unit, Optum, had previously taken over the management arms of two smaller area doctors’ groups, including the MemorialCare Independent Practice Association.
Newport Irvine said that it hired Mission Viejo-based Sovereign Healthcare to provide management services for the group.
Hospital Stocks
The Supreme Court’s ruling on federal healthcare reform wasn’t expected to influence long-term investors in hospital stocks.
Long-term investors are getting more interested in hospitals based on several factors. Those include the need to address the uninsured issue as well as what Reuters, in a recent feature, called “the rapid graying of America.”
Area chains mentioned in the article included Tenet Healthcare Corp., which owns Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center, Los Alamitos Medical Center, and Placentia-Linda Hospital.
Larry Robbins, a hedge fund manager with New York-based Glenview Capital Management, highlighted during a May investor conference his long positions in hospital stocks, including Dallas-based Tenet, which he held a 6.14% stake in as of March 31.
“The stocks have become incredibly cheap,” Jessica Bemer, an analyst with Sewickley, Pa.-based Snow Capital Management, told Reuters.
She noted that some investors had been hesitant to jump on the stocks pending the high court ruling.
Snow owns shares of two hospital chains that don’t operate in Orange County—Health Management Associates Inc. of Naples, Fla., and Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems Inc. Community made an unsuccessful attempt to buy Tenet.
Auxilio Contract
Mission Viejo-based Auxilio Inc., which helps hospitals and healthcare providers cut their dependence on paper records, said it has a five-year, $10 million contract with San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare. Sharp is a regional healthcare system with seven hospitals, two medical groups and a health plan. It has nearly 2,000 beds, 2,600 affiliated doctors and 14,000 employees. … Sharp said it expects to save more than $2.5 million over the contract’s life. … Auxilio signed a five-year, $35 million contract with Bon Secours Health System in Marriottsville, Md., last month. Bon Secours, a $3.3 billion Catholic health system, has said it expects to save $7 million over the course of its contract with Auxilio.
