(Photo above: BMC Clinic | from DVA ADvertising & PR)
Bend Memorial Clinic (BMC), part of the Central Oregon community for over 71 years, recently announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent to partner with Summit Health Management (SHM) of New Jersey. BMC says this landmark venture with Summit Health Management will offer Bend Memorial Clinic greater stability and vitality.
The relationship will further allow BMC to maintain its independence as a physician-owned medical group, while providing access to a wide range of administrative, clinical and financial management services designed to expand and improve patient care.
The state of healthcare is changing. Because of current financial, administrative and regulatory demands BMC says that physicians are forced to search for new practice models. BMC/SHM is forming a physician-owned, physician-run healthcare model.
SHM unveiled transactions that will extend its patient care and physician group management model outside of New Jersey. In Oregon, a Letter of Intent to provide administrative, clinical and financial management services has been signed with BMC, the largest independent multi-specialty physician group in its region, with 120 providers.
In the Greater Phoenix area, SHM will join 51 providers currently affiliated as Arizona Primary Care Physicians (APC) to form Summit Medical Group Arizona as of January 1, 2018. Additionally, APC has entered into a comprehensive management services contract with SHM to facilitate the partnership and transition.
“The rapidly evolving health care landscape is requiring independent physician groups across the country to make pivotal decisions that will shape their future and the delivery of patient care. We are delighted that Bend Memorial Clinic and Arizona Primary Care have chosen to partner with us to retain their physician-owned and governed structures and patient-centric philosophy,” said Dr. Jeffrey Le Benger, Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Summit Health Management. “We’ll help both of these partners to thrive and expand by sharing our resources and expertise in population health management and other emerging value-based care models. We are committed to a culture of collaboration across geographic boundaries with shared learning and uniform adoption of best practices.”
Letter of Intent with Bend Memorial Clinic of Oregon
With 120 health care providers, 30 specialties and state-of-the-art medical technologies, BMC will gain access to SHM’s proprietary patient care and practice management model which has demonstrably improved outcomes and reduced costs at Summit Medical Group in New Jersey, one of the largest independent multi-specialty physician groups in the nation.
“This is an important milestone in the long and distinguished history of BMC that will ensure the strength and vitality of our physician-owned and governed medical group,” said Dr. David Holloway, Chief Executive Officer of Bend Memorial Clinic.
“Summit Health Management and BMC are cut from the same cloth with shared values,” said Russell Massine, MD, Chief Governance Officer of Bend Memorial Clinic. “We are committed to ensuring that there is no interruption in the high quality care our patients receive and delivering on our brand commitment of providing patients the Total Care they expect and deserve.”
Formation of Summit Medical Group Arizona
Summit Medical Group Arizona says it will align like-minded medical providers in a physician-led group with a culture of caring and a patient-first philosophy. Utilizing SHM’s care and practice management model, it will deliver greater value and increased quality for the residents of Arizona. Building upon Arizona Primary Care’s established presence in the Phoenix metro market, Summit Medical Group Arizona will offer an expanded breadth of physician specialists and convenient, co-located sites with numerous new services (i.e. lab, radiology, same day care, urgent care, etc.) that create “one-stop shops.”
The founding members of Summit Medical Group Arizona who are joining Summit Health Management are separate, long-established practices affiliated as Arizona Primary Care: Thunderbird Internal Medicine (Glendale/Phoenix/Sun City), Paseo Primary Care Physicians (Glendale), Daniel L. Kessler MD (Sun City West/Surprise), Fountains Family Care (Chandler), Family First Physicians (Mesa), Estrella Internal Medicine and Pediatrics (Goodyear/Litchfield Park) and Holland Center for Family Health (Glendale/Sun City). The 51 providers at these locations encompass internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, geriatrics, colorectal, neurology, podiatry and audiology specialists, physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
To facilitate Arizona Primary Care’s transition into the Summit Medical Group Arizona partnership, APC has entered into a comprehensive managed services contract with SHM that will permit the integration to move forward while also honoring APC’s established contracts with payers and other parties for the remainder of their term.
“This partnership with Summit Health Management will provide us with the essential tools, capabilities and resources to navigate the challenging healthcare environment and successfully grow a physician-led and governed group, broadening our ancillary and specialist capability offerings to the benefit of the residents of the Valley,” said Dr. Brian Riveland, CEO of Thunderbird Internal Medicine and the Chief Physician Executive of Summit Medical Group Arizona. “As Summit Medical Group Arizona, we will remain committed to a ‘patient first’ philosophy with a focus on providing convenient local access to high quality care.”
“These newly formed relationships affirm that the distinctive patient care and practice management model which fostered the unprecedented growth and success of Summit Medical Group in New Jersey is scalable, customizable and nationally relevant,” said Dr. Le Benger. “Across the country, physician groups are contemplating whether they continue independently or partner with large hospital systems or corporate entities. Our goal is to provide colleagues with all of the resources needed to sustain thriving independent physician groups.”
Summit Health Management
Founded in 2014, Summit Health Management (SHM) offers a physician-led, professionally-managed model of management services for Summit Medical Group in New Jersey and mid- to large-sized physician practices across the United States. Developed by physicians for physicians, SHM provides an innovative alternative to traditional options for the integration of multi-specialty group practice and the delivery of value-based care. SHM’s practice management services are focused in five discrete but inter-related categories essential to running a successful, enterprise-scale medical group: organizational structure and governance, operations management, revenue management, physician management, and population health management. For more information, visit www.summithealthmanagement.com.
Summit Medical Group in New Jersey
Summit Medical Group (SMG) in New Jersey is the largest and oldest physician-owned, multi-specialty medical practice in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area and among the largest in the nation, with almost 800 providers. SMG maintains a 42-acre healthcare campus in Berkeley Heights and more than 65 additional practice locations in central and northern New Jersey. As an East Coast premier multi-specialty group, SMG has provided exceptional primary and specialty care since 1929. For more information, visit www.summitmedicalgroup.com.
Bend Memorial Clinic
Bend Memorial Clinic includes more than 120 providers with 30 specialties and services including urgent care, primary care, specialty care, imaging and clinical services. With five locations, BMC is the largest multi-specialty group in Central Oregon and provides quality, convenient healthcare known as TotalCare™. The Clinic has provided primary and specialty care since 1946. For more information, please visit www.bendmemorialclinic.com.
