DAILY NEWS CLIP: January 13, 2025

There’s a new medical group forming in CT. It promises an innovative twist on patient primary care


Hartford Courant – Sunday, January 12, 2025
By Kenneth R. Gosselin

A physician-owned health network is launching a new medical group with an innovative membership twist: primary-care doctors who aren’t interested in being independent practitioners but also don’t want the constraints of being part of a big hospital.

Windsor-based Southern New England Healthcare, known as SoNE Health, said the new medical group will allow primary-care doctors to spend more time with patients enjoying some of the same autonomy as independent physicians without the headaches of negotiating contracts with insurers, dealing with government regulations and time-consuming billing.

The medical group also is open to physician assistants and nurse practitioners.

The medical group seeks to open up another avenue for primary care, often the first point of medical care contact for most consumers. In recent years, primary care has undergone a rapid consolidation as an increasing number of independent doctors and other medical professionals have become affiliated with big health systems.

“So when they join SoNE’s medical group, unlike being tied to a health system or other organization that demands high productivity — the treadmill and churning out patients and all that — SoNE Medical really allows them much autonomy within how they do their medicine,” James Uberti, SoNE Health’s medical director and president of the new medical group, said.

Uberti, a physician with a master degree in public health, said doctors and others joining the group become employees, their compensation determined not only by productivity goals but practicing high quality medicine that translates into better patient health and forms a more satisfying relationship for both doctors and their patients.

SoNE Health and the new medical group is grounded in what is known as value-based care. Value-based care ties payment amounts for patient services to the results that are delivered by such measures as quality, equity and cost of care, according to the American Medical Association, a professional association and lobbying group for physicians and medical students.

The approach can promote better coordination among different health care professions, avoid unnecessary services, promote wellness and prevention and expanded access for “historically marginalized or clinically complex populations,” the AMA said.

One broader goal of the value-based model also is to help rein in the soaring cost of health care.
Push back on big health systems

The medical group is forming at a time when independent physician practices — particularly primary care — are being snapped up by large hospitals, both in Connecticut and nationally.

A recent report from the Physicians Advocacy Institute and Avalere Health shows hospitals, health systems and corporate entities now employ 77.6% of the nation’s doctors, up from 44% in 2018, and own 58.5% of medical practices.

The report found 19,100 more “physicians became employees of hospitals or corporate entities between 2022 and 2023.”

In addition, for the first time, corporate entities such as health insurance companies, private equity firms and pharmacy chains own a greater share of practices, at 30.1% than do hospitals and health systems, at 28.4%.

In Connecticut, hospital health systems range from large organizations such as Yale New Haven Health and Hartford HealthCare to systems owned by one hospital, such as UConn Health. Other medical systems such as ProHealth Physicians, owned by Optum, is part UnitedHealth Group, parent of insurance giant UnitedHealthcare. Hospital health systems say that they provide improved, streamlined and coordinated care because primary care providers and specialists can work together and have easier access to patients’ medical records.

But studies report that acquisitions are driving up the cost of health care and doctors lose the freedom to manage their own scheduling.

“We continue to encourage primary and preventative care, which keeps you healthier and keeps you out of the hospital,” Lamont said.
Doctor-patient relationship

SoNE Health was previously allied with Trinity Health of New England, the parent of St. Francis Hospital and three others in Connecticut. SoNe, whose market stretches from Waterbury to Springfield, Mass., went independent a year ago.

But with the launch of the new medical group, SoNE is looking to expand geographically across Connecticut.

Prior to the launch of the medical group, SoNe Health focused on its consortium of more than 500 independent physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners plus and the services needed to go along with those practices, including insurance contracts and billing. In addition to services, those who join the new medical group would work with the independent specialty doctors in the original network.

Potential candidates for the new medical group are newly-minted physicians; those who may have years of experience as independents but no longer want to deal with the administrative duties and the accompanying costs; and medical professionals who no longer want to be a part of a larger health system, Uberti said.

Lisa Trumble, SoNE Health’s president and chief executive, said SoNE puts the doctor-patient relationship first.

“Patients don’t want their employer, the government, the Supreme Court, insurers — they don’t want anyone else making those decisions for them,” Trumble said.

“They want to make those decisions together with a trusted clinician. Our goal is to expand our footprint by developing a medical group whose focus will be solely based on this principle.”

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