Integrated-care foundations are increasingly becoming attractive options for individual physicians and group practices seeking greater access to clinical and technology resources, personnel and hospitals.
“The biggest benefit is a shared vision and alignment about where we want to go and what we want to accomplish to improve quality,” said Dr. Lowell Kleinman, a family doctor who joined Tustin-based MemorialCare Medical Group last year. “Operationally, what you see is that people are sharing goals and the activities that we do, all of which are aimed at keeping quality as high as we can.”
Physicians who are in practice for themselves or even in group practices can have a difficult time navigating the ever-changing healthcare landscape, particularly in California, where hospitals cannot directly employ physicians.
Integrated-care groups—focused on improving quality and cutting costs—are designed to help.
Orange-based St. Joseph Health recently announced that Mission Internal Medical Group Inc., comprised of 71 physicians and serving 150,000 patients, will be affiliated with St. Joseph Heritage Healthcare. St. Joseph Heritage is a statewide physician practice organization that works with doctors practicing in large multispecialty groups, and small independent practices.
It includes St. Jude Heritage Medical Group, St. Joseph Heritage Medical Group and the recently announced affiliation with Mission Internal Medical Group, which will be effective later this year. The three groups comprise of 310 physicians in the affiliated network with 19 office locations in Orange County and Los Angeles.
“Most groups that come to us have the same concerns,” said Darrin Montalvo, executive vice president for St. Joseph Health’s Southern California region. “They want to know where healthcare is going, where the economy going, and where is reimbursement for services going. They want to partner with people that have similar missions, visions and values. Doctors tend to be independent, but now they’re working with larger medical groups where they get to collaborate on patient care.”
Benefits
MemorialCare’s recent affiliation with Greater Newport Physicians in February was another example of a large physician group seeing the benefits of joining an integrated-care organization.
“For the individual doctor, they’re continuing to practice medicine and do things in much of the same way,” said Dr. Catherine Campion, a family medicine physician and president of Greater Newport Physicians. “But in the bigger picture, what we’re seeing is our efforts to establish our network in different locations to get more geographic diversity.”
Physicians who join integrated-care groups not only have access to a larger market, but are also given tools such as electronic medical records, which are shared across the network, ultimately benefiting patients whose records can be seamlessly shared.
“One of the problems that all doctors have is that they’re in these little silos of their own practice,” said Dr. Mark Schafer, chief medical officer for MemorialCare Medical Foundation, which is part of Fountain Valley-based MemorialCare Health System. “The only information they have about their patients is what their patients tell them during their visit. Being a part of a bigger system, doctors have access to a much broader amount of clinical information, which helps to reduce duplication, and gets doctors more information about their patients sooner.”
There are nearly 2,000 physicians with 350 primary care physicians plus 1,600 affiliated specialists who work under the MemorialCare Medical Foundation umbrella.
Irvine-based Monarch HealthCare, A Medical Group Inc. allows physicians to come under their umbrella as independent contractors or as employees.
“Our model is very, very flexible,” said Monarch’s Executive Chairman Dr. Jay Cohen. “We have over 2,300 doctors that we contract with. We also have a medical group where the doctors are employed, but that’s a much smaller percentage.”
Whatever the setup, integrated care aims to offer high-quality care that is comprehensive in scope, offering patients one-stop shopping for a network of medical services where care is coordinated and data is shared across a network.
Less Paperwork
The aim is for more efficient care and less paperwork for patients to fill out.
“Those are the kinds of things that keep people out of emergency rooms and hospitals,” Kleinman said. “The end result is that quality goes up and the cost goes down, resulting in happier patients and a happier staff.”
Integrated care seeks to offer physicians a way of providing care for patients with fewer administrative headaches and high costs.
“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to run a private practice,” Campion said. “I envision that as time goes on, you will have fewer and fewer doctors practicing on their own. (They will be) looking to larger systems to provide that support.”
