Vermont Business Magazine Frustrated by the increasing pressures on independent doctors to sell out to hospitals and health systems, a group of doctors from HealthFirst, Vermont’s largest independent physician group, has joined the Association of Independent Doctors, a national nonprofit dedicated to helping private practices survive. The move establishes the Vermont Chapter of AID, while reinforcing HealthFirst’s resolve to do what’s best for patients and help independent doctors maintain their small practices. The head of Vermont's largest hospital organization said they've only acquired private practices when they've been approached by the doctors themselves.
“When hospital systems buy private medical practices, costs sky rocket and quality suffers,” said Marni Jameson Carey, executive director of AID.
Nationwide, large hospital systems have been aggressively buying up independent doctors and turning them into employed physicians, she said.
“AID is working to reverse that trend, which is not good for patients, doctors, or communities,” said Carey. “As the number of independent doctors shrinks, unfavorable market dynamics, including higher health-care costs and lower quality of care, grow.”
The addition of a Vermont chapter is crucial given the dynamics in the state, said HealthFirst Executive Director Amy Cooper.
“By joining forces with AID, we can bring greater attention to the issues facing independent doctors and their patients,” said Cooper. “We must do all we can to protect patient’s access to the personalized care offered by independent doctors.”
However, Dr John Brumsted,CEO of the UVM Medical Center and the UVM Health Network, said in a VTDigger article published Monday on the formation of the new organization, that: “We do not aggressively go after acquiring any practices, and we have not done so in any time that I’ve been in senior management, which goes back quite some time.
“The only practices that we have acquired have been those that came to us and requested that we brought them inside of the network, and it’s because they couldn’t maybe go the practice on their own, and so to preserve access for those communities, we have hired those physicians and brought them into our practice group.
“We have no approach where we go out and try and make a pitch and sell to a practice that they should come inside, and actually I’m unaware of any hospitals in Vermont that do that.
"It may be a national phenomenon, but I do not believe that that’s anything happening in Vermont,” Brumsted said.
According to UVMMC, it has acquired three practices in the past 6 years, all of whom approached the hospital.
The UVM Health Network includes the UVM Medical Center in Burlington, Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin, Porter Hospital in Middlebury and three hospitals in upstate New York.
“Forming a Vermont Chapter of AID will help us ensure that health-care reform supports physician-owned practices, which have been proven to offer the highest-quality and most cost-effective care to patients,” said Dr. Paul Reiss, chief medical officer for HealthFirst.
Vermont’s doctors will benefit from AID’s infrastructure, national reach and resources, Cooper added.
By joining AID, HealthFirst will help give independent doctors a voice on the national stage, while maintaining its local activism,” said Carey, who spoke to the group in Burlington last fall. After her presentation, the group’s board voted to go ahead with a chapter, and underwrote 15 memberships to form the chapter.
Members will become a part of AID’s online directory of independent doctors, a growing database designed to help patients and referral sources find independent doctors.
Founded in 2013, AID has 1,000 members in more than 30 states and chapters in five: Florida, California, Maine, South Carolina, and now Vermont.
A former Los Angeles Times health reporter, Carey speaks frequently to media on behalf of independent doctors. She also speaks often in the nation’s capital and to health-care associations across the country to reverse the trend of hospitals buying up medical practices.
As a part of the effort, AID works to promote health-care price transparency, to educate consumers about the cost benefits of getting care from independent providers, and to inform lawmakers about why saving America’s independent doctors is healthy for America.
About the Association of Independent Doctors
Founded in 2013, the Association of Independent Doctors is a national nonprofit dedicated to helping reduce health-care costs by helping consumers, businesses and lawmakers understand the value of keeping America’s doctors independent. A fast-growing trade association with 1,000 members in more than 30 states coast to coast, AID is a 501(c)(6) based in Winter Park, Fla. www.aid-us.org.
About HealthFirst VT: HealthFirst is Vermont’s Independent Practice Association, representing healthcare practitioners working at physician-owned practices throughout the state. HealthFirst’s membership includes more than 200 physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and nurses practicing at 70 primary care and specialty sites across 10 Vermont counties.
Source: HealthFirst VT 4.25.2017