CarePoint Healthcare and EPIC Merge to Form One of the Largest Privately Held Physician Practices in the U.S.
Industry: Healthcare
Physician Practice Merger Offers Favorable Alternative to Private Equity Consolidation While Keeping High-quality Patient Care Top Priority
Denver, CO (PRUnderground) August 6th, 2018
CarePoint Healthcare of Greenwood Village, Colorado and Emergency Physicians Integrated Care (EPIC) of Salt Lake City, Utah today announced an agreement to merge the two independently owned and operated physician group management companies under the new entity name CarePoint Health.
CarePoint Health will have over 600 healthcare specialists providing care across six states (Colorado, Utah, Kansas, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana) and will be one of the largest privately held and democratically owned physician practices in the U.S. Its telemedicine division, Blue Sky Telehealth, provides services in 25 states.
“The healthcare landscape is changing, and healthcare organizations that join forces will stay ahead of the shifting landscape,” says Steve Quach, M.D., CEO of CarePoint Healthcare.
Dr. Quach says that as more private equity, venture capital groups and healthcare systems consolidate physician practices, the decline of the independently owned physician practice has negative implications for continuity of patient care, quality, innovation, and cost.
Strength in Numbers
After fielding multiple inquiries and acquisition offers, CarePoint Healthcare and EPIC’s boards made a strategic decision that independence and true physician ownership was the key to the practices’ success.
CarePoint Healthcare and EPIC share a common culture, operating on a democratic structure where physicians are equal partners in their groups and are invested in their patients’ health.
As they saw the ranks of private physician practices diminish in size across the nation due to private equity and health system acquisition, both groups decided a proactive approach was their best course of action and knew a merger would be beneficial to grow their businesses and provide their patients with the highest quality care.
“We’ve created a unique alternative to what’s happening in the healthcare environment through consolidation. Our physicians own the entire company, and as a result, they are the driving force in prioritizing quality care for our patients. From a business standpoint, we can be better together with more experience and expertise, and on the administrative level, we can be more effective and efficient,” he adds.
CarePoint Healthcare and EPIC both originated as Emergency Medicine practices, but the combined new practice, CarePoint Health, includes neurology, neurosurgery, hospital medicine, and several other clinical specialties. The corresponding clinical integration will result in improved patients outcomes.
Positive Alternative for Physician Groups
Bob Parker, CEO of EPIC says the merger allows both physician practices to benefit from combined resources so they can tell their practice’s story more comprehensively through enhanced data analytics.
“This is a great opportunity for our physicians to preserve ownership, a key to our practice for the benefit of our hospital partners, and most importantly, our patients,” says Parker.
He says that physician groups have not traditionally had the sophisticated infrastructure required to demonstrate the high-quality care and excellent patient outcomes they’re able to achieve.
“It takes additional investment in hardware, software, and brain trust to design this type of model that demonstrates to our hospitals and healthcare systems the great patient care and value this democratic physician practice provides for them and their patients. Now as CarePoint Health, we have the resources to make this a reality,” adds Parker.
Dr. Quach will serve as the CEO of the new combined entity, CarePoint Health, and Bob Parker will serve as the Chief Operating Officer of CarePoint Health.
CarePoint Health plans to expand its relationship with key partners in the healthcare industry.
“We’re paving the way to show smaller physician practices that there is another choice. They don’t have to trade their independence and values for a future lacking in shared priorities that often comes with consolidation,” adds Dr. Quach.
About CarePoint Health
CarePoint Health is one of the largest privately held and democratically owned multispecialty physician practices in the U.S. with over 600 healthcare specialists providing care across Colorado, Utah, Kansas, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana. Its telemedicine division, Blue Sky Telehealth, provides services in twenty-five states. Learn more about CarePoint’s clinical specialties and telehealth offerings at www.carepointhc.com/.
