MEDPARTNERS: Selling Five California Physician Groups
As part of its continued reorganization efforts, Birmingham, AL-based MedPartners Inc. announced yesterday that it "has signed a definitive agreement" to sell five physician groups in California. While the buyers and the prices were undisclosed, company spokesman Robert Mead said some of the operations would be sold to the groups themselves while "other deals will involve corporations" (Tomberlin, The Birmingham News, 5/25). The Los Angeles Times reports that the sales "represent about 20% of MedPartners' California business, but only 10% of its 1 million patients in the state." The groups to be sold are Eaton Medical Group in Tracy and Manteca in San Joaquin County; U.S. Family Medical Care Medical Center in Montclair; Inland Empire Medical Group in the Riverside area; Cassidy Medical Group in San Diego; and High Desert Primary Care Group in Hesperia and Victorville. MedPartners is divesting itself of all California operations, including physician practice management businesses, clinics and its health plan. Mead said larger clinics, such as Friendly Hills and Mullikin Medical Groups in Los Angeles and Orange counties, have yet to be sold (Bernstein, 5/25). He said the sales, which must be approved by a bankruptcy court judge, will result in no interruption of service for patients of doctors in the groups (AP/Contra Costa Times, 5/25). The Birmingham News reports that physician groups "represent the bulk" of MedPartners' operations in California. Since the company announced last November that it was "exiting the physician management business," it has sold off assets worth almost $700 million in California, Texas and other markets (5/25).
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