Healthcare providers are expressing deep concern after Nampa, Idaho-based Saltzer Health, a physician group, will be sold or closed by its owner, Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health, by March 29 due to "ongoing financial and economic challenges."
"I spent 13 years building my practice," Erik Richardson, DO, a family medicine physician at Saltzer Health's South Meridian clinic, told Becker's. "I have a very busy, very productive practice and I take care of a lot of sick patients, and to have them destroy my practice that I've been working on so hard with no input from me or any way to salvage this is just beyond compare."
Dr. Richardson said that he and other local Saltzer leaders were informed of the plans to sell or close in a Jan. 18 meeting with an Intermountain Health executive, but given no opportunity to discuss the news or provide input on the decisions.
"With them doing this and planning on shutting doors March 29, it leaves, obviously, us out of employment, but more importantly for our community it leaves our patients without care because there's no follow-up plan," he said. "They're absolutely, completely abandoning our patients."
Saltzer, which was acquired by Intermountain in October 2020, is in active negotiations with healthcare companies regarding the purchase of certain group operations and is "optimistic" that a sale can be achieved, according to a Jan. 18 Saltzer Health news release.
The physician group has 450 employees and 11 locations, according to its website, that will be affected should it be forced to close or sell.
"While we are disappointed by Intermountain Health’s decision, our commitment to this community remains unwavering. Although the short timeline that we have been given makes this a significant challenge, we are actively exploring options to ensure continued access to high-quality, compassionate care for our patients. We understand this uncertainty is unsettling, and we are working diligently to develop a plan for the future," a statment on behalf of Saltzer Health physicians and caregivers shared with Becker's said.
Even if Saltzer were to sell, Dr. Richardson said people would still lose their jobs.
"Any sale at this point probably would only include our family practice and internal medicine, which is about 15 doctors, another 15 [advanced practice providers]. All of our specialists, all of our OB-GYN, pediatrics, all of those were given a 90-day notice as of Thursday," he said.
Dr. Richardson said one of his surgeons already has surgeries scheduled far into the future for patients and follow-up care will be disrupted if these specialties are affected.
"With most surgeries requiring a 90-day global window where they have to care for them, how are they going to do surgeries even tomorrow? If they have to care for patients and we're closing March 29?" he said. "What do my obstetrics do with patients who are delivering in April, May, June, when they don't have an OB who can take care of them?"
Saltzer plans to work closely with patients and their caregivers by contacting them and providing information about their options to help with the transition of continued care, according to the release.
"The only communication that has been given basically was a letter to our patients stating, you know, call your insurance company, find a new doctor," Dr. Richardson said.
In light of the announcement, Dr. Richardson said he and his colleagues just need time.
"We need time to be able to establish our own practices, we need time to be able to have a landing place for our patients so they're not abandoned. The moment this announcement was made, we had people running into our clinics asking, 'What's going on?' 'What's going to happen with my doctor?'"
Prior to announcing its plans to sell or close Saltzer, Intermountain Health merged with Broomfield, Colo.-based SCL Health in April, 2022. The merger resulted in SCL contributing 8 hospitals and $4.2 billion in net assets to the combined health system.
Intermountain also reported $157 million in operating income on revenues of $11.9 billion for the nine months ending Sept. 30, and continues to expand in other areas, including a pediatric hospital it is opening Feb. 12 in Lehi, Utah.
Becker's reached out to Intermountain Health with additional questions regarding the above information provided. The health system told Becker's it could not speak to our questions at this time and referred back to its original statement.