Integration & Physician Issues

Several physician practice acquisitions made by Boise, Idaho-based St. Luke's Health System are under review by the Idaho attorney general's office and the Federal Trade Commission, according to an Idaho Statesman report.

The following transactions or developments between hospitals and physician groups took place within the past month, beginning with the most recent.

Some of the country's most prestigious medical schools are collaborating in a new non-profit organization to teach physicians-in-training how to weigh the costs of care, according to a New York Times report.

Some physicians are choosing to make upgrades to transition their practices into the medical home model — an arrangement that can result in attractive payor contracts — but find themselves bearing the cost and not hearing from insurance companies, according…

David Cordani, CEO of health insurer Cigna, said the company plans to have one million patients enrolled in accountable care organizations by 2014, according to a Bloomberg Businessweek report.

Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, Calif., will not suspend or close its family practice residency program as it had originally planned, according to a 23ABC report.

Hospitalists are the fastest growing specialists in the history of American medicine, and young physicians continue to find appeal in the work that leaves them caring for hospitalized patients without an office-based practice, according to a report in The Atlantic.

Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation, based in East St. Louis, Ill., has acquired Weber Medical Clinic in Olney, Ill, in a deal that was completed March 5, according to an Olney Daily Mail report.

A practicing infectious disease physician has authored an op-ed for the Washington Post, detailing his conflicted feelings about giving up private practice, and thus autonomy, to work for a hospital.  

Lee Sacks, MD, CMO of Oak Brook, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care, said the system's accountable care organization not only makes economic sense, but is "the right thing to do," according to a New York Times report.