MEDPARTNERS: Physicians, Investor Group Plan to Grab Network

      A group of doctors and investors is "negotiating to buy the bulk of MedPartners Inc.'s troubled physician network" in California, the Orange County Register reports. But the proposed deal has upset many MedPartners-affiliated doctors who had their own plans to buy back practices from the company. But MedPartners has been "unreceptive" to the doctors' offers, according to Steven Fleischer, associate general counsel for the California Medical Association (Crabtree, 4/24). The consortium proposes to pay $5 million for the groups' liabilities and to pour $65 million into the bankrupt network, the AP/Sacramento Bee reports. The deal calls for MedManagement Acquisitions Corp., a 30-physician investment group, and investment fund Apollo Equity to purchase three MedPartners medical groups and merge them into one "super group" that would rival Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Southern California. The three groups -- Mullikin, Friendly Hills and Southern California Medical Corp. -- provide health care to more than 500,000 patients in 66 Orange and Los Angeles county clinics (AP/Sacramento Bee, 4/25).