UC DAVIS: Medical Group to Exit Chico
The University of California-Davis Medical Group announced this week that it will pull out of Chico at the end of the year because "too few patients from Butte County have been referred to the UC Davis hospital in Sacramento to justify the Chico group's expenses." The Chico Enterprise reports that the group's 18 doctors will remain in the area, but will no longer be affiliated with UC Davis. UC Davis had hired the doctors as salaried employees as "part of a plan to try to ensure that UC Davis Medical Center maintained strong enough patients in the era of managed health care." However, the strategy seems to have stumbled in rural areas; UC Davis also announced this week that it would shut down its Fairfield-Vacaville operation. The Enterprise reports that UC Davis is "one of three groups tied to large out-of-the-area medical organizations that set up shop in Butte County in the last few years to try to compete for HMO contracts." Both of the other players, Sutter North and California Medical Foundation, have already left the area (Mitchell, 5/5).
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