HOSPITALISTS INC.: Reaches Agreement To Treat Out-Of-Network Kaiser Members
Hospitalists Inc., a company that manages inpatient-based specialist physician networks, recently finalized a 14-month contract with the Southern California Permanente Medical Group to provide additional services to Kaiser Permanente patients at non- Kaiser hospitals. Under the affiliation, the medical group will "provide emergency triage and inpatient physician services" to Kaiser patients at "65 non-Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Los Angeles and Riverside counties." The patients seeking treatment would undergo evaluation by an emergency room physician and a Hospitalists specialist, who would together "determine whether the patient should be treated in the emergency room and then discharged, stabilized and transported to a Kaiser facility or admitted to the out-of-network hospital." Although the agreement only applies to Southern California, Hospitalists President and CEO Michael Brouthers said his company aims to "expand the contract to other Kaiser markets" (California Medicine, 12/98 issue).
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