Physician-Hospital Alignment

Client
Multi-hospital (three hospitals in contiguous markets) system in suburban market

Challenge
Create a physician-hospital alignment strategy that is responsive to competitive pressures (major competitors are further along in achieving physician-hospital integration), payer consolidation, with significant penetration of managed care, and the challenges faced by mostly small/solo physicians.

Solution
The Camden Group created a framework for developing meaningful physician-hospital integration – in this case, a medical foundation. A new primary care medical group was formed, composed of physicians formerly in small private practices. The initial group was 37 primary care physicians; the group now includes over 100 primary care physicians, hospitalists, and some specialists. This group forms the core primary care base for the health system, but is augmented by physicians that wish to remain in private practice, who participate in an IPA that is also incorporated into the medical foundation. The foundation is the fulcrum for all physician recruitment, system payer contracting, and care management initiatives. Our work continues to include strategic advisory services to the medical group and the medical foundation, as well as the provision of fairness opinions validating fair market compensation for all physician compensation arrangements.

Results
The system has been able to successfully fulfill their physician recruitment needs, due to the development of the medical group, which has evolved into a strong, self-governed, but supportive partner for system strategic initiatives. The group and the system consistently achieve top decile performance in pay-for-performance payer initiatives as well as public reports of quality and outcomes. The system has remained a strong player and market leader, staving off attempts of larger competitors to encroach on their service area; payer relations are balanced, but have resulted in extremely competitive rates for the hospital and physicians in the system.

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