MDNews - Cleveland-Akron-Canton

PRESERVING PHYSICIAN OWNERSHIP In today 's hea lthca re environment, ma ny physicia n-owned practices a re str uggling to rema in viable. Even hospita l- employed a nd -contracted physicia ns a re questioning their job securit y a s hospita ls consolidate to meet the needs of patients a nd the dema nds of payors. "There's a ton of consolidation now in hea lthcare. Hospita ls a re consolidating. The payors, like Aetna a nd Huma na, a re consolidating. A nd physicia ns rea lly have to do the sa me, not only to meet the dema nds a nd the expectations of the hospita ls a nd the patients, but a lso to be able to negotiate a nd work with payors in a collaborative way to provide the ca re," Dr. Bag noli expla ins. He points out that, in the past 18 months, he's seen three wel l-established emergency medicine physicia n-ow ned g roups join publicly traded cor porations. Watching this happen, he couldn't help but wonder if EMP could avoid the sa me fate whi le sti ll follow ing its orig ina l business pla n with physicia n ownership at its core. " We are passionate about physician ownership," Dr. Bagnoli says. " We know that physician ownership ma kes a difference, that having physicia ns own the practice a llows them to be better a lig ned with the hea lth systems they ser ve, a nd that patients a re better ser ved by physicia ns who have a sta ke in the ga me." If the physicians aren't owners and they're just contractors, Dr. Bagnoli believes, they 're not going to treat their business the sa me way that owners do. "Our V P of Recruiting puts it this way: How of ten do you wash your renta l ca r? " In December 2014, Dr. Bag noli a nd his leadership tea m decided to create a new business pla n — one t hat wou ld require considerable capita l to succeed. In May 2015, they launched USACS. BUILDING A BETTER BUSINESS MODEL In the past, physicia n-owned g roups had only two options when faced with the cha llenges of the hea lthca re environ- ment: stay the course a nd rema in independent, or sell to a larger organization and become its employees. USACS offers a n a lternative — the oppor tunity to pa r tner with a compa ny major it y- ow ned by physicia n s but w it h t he resou rces, business suppor t a nd capita l of a substa ntia l enterprise. " W hen we presented this model to our EMP docs as a way to compete long term, ever yone thought it was awesome," says Dr. Bagnoli. "In fact, they voted to create USACS without one single dissenting vote." USACS oŸers a more comprehensive solution across the continuum of care, including emergency, observation, hospital- ist and post- acute-care services. "We've started pilot programs with some of our big health systems to provide an integrated, coordinated continuum of care that's consistent and really helps the hospital improve service, the quality of care and the experience for the patients, while reducing costs," Dr. Bagnoli explains. USACS provides the support services, such as data collec- tion. The company also invests in technolog y and produces new programs to help hospitals deal with the challenges of keeping their patient population healthy at a lower cost and with better outcomes. Currently, physicians a«liated with EMP and the three groups which joined USACS in the past three months own 60 percent of the compa ny. Those three g roups include the following. + Ta mpa Bay Emergency Physicia ns (TBEP), known for delivering e«cient and quality care to patients within the Florida Hospital System for more than 40 years + Mar yland-based MEP Hea lth, a provider of outpatient and emergency care since 1997, serving over a half million patients in nine facilities across three states in the Mid- Atlantic region + Emergency Physicians at Porter Hospital (EPPH), the exclu- sive provider of outsourced emergency medicine services for five facilities in the Centura Health system in Denver "We have a majority of physician board members, and we control the company. So we've been able to continue the physi- cian ownership model with USACS but also obtain the capital to grow the business and do more consolidating acquisitions," Dr. Bagnoli explains. "Eventua lly, we expect to create the same size and scale as the publicly traded companies, thereby giving physician ownership a chance to survive for the next quarter century." He emphasizes that while the company name has changed, the underlying values and company goals have not. " We've been focused on building a nationa l leader, with physician ownership at its core, since 1992," says Dr. Bagnoli. "I'm even more excited about what we're doing today than I've ever been." For more information about U.S. Acute Care Solutions, visit usacs.com or call 800-828-0898. ■ 1 0❱❱❱❱❱ C O V E R S T O R Y 1 0

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