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Group Thinking Private doctors set up network to ride wave of health-care reform By Traci Klein Leader-Telegram staff Sixty-six independent Eau Claire doctors have banded together to form Oak Leaf Medical Network, a "clinic without walls." "We 're taking advantage of this situation where it's a benefit to be part of a larger group but still have the advantage of being smaller clinics," said Dr. Steven Immerman, chairman of Oak Leaf's board of directors.The network will allow member physicians, who own and control it, to join together to contract with HMOs and other managed care plans. In addition, the network, located at 2125 Heights Drive, will enable them to do group marketing and recruit physicians. Oak Leaf "will help control costs by having physicians accept financial risk for the care they provide," Immerman said. "Managed competition is the catch word for the ‘90s. This organization allows us to bring the traditionally lower-cost independent practice into the managed care arena." "I don 't know how health care will change, but it will change," he said. "For solo practitioners it will be more difficult to flow with those changes. This will make it much more easy." Insurance company contracts will be handled through Oak Leaf, instead of individual doctors. But doctors will accept patients whose insurance companies do not have contracts with Oak Leaf.Those patients will be billed directly from the doctor 's office, whereas Oak Leaf will handle billing for patients whose insurance companies have contracted through the network.For patients, not much will change, but the network means independent physicians will be able to continue to practice medicine in smaller settings, and remain "strong and versatile" through health care changes, Immerman said. "From a patient 's point of view, they come in the office and know who they'll see," said Douglas Trembath, Oak Leaf's executive director. "It's a more personal way of providing care. That won't change.""(Doctors) will stay in their individual offices but will have one entity to negotiate for them," said Trembath, former president and chief executive officer of Luther Hospital. In the spring, when Luther and Midelfort Clinic announced plans to combine administrations, Trembath was considered for the executive vice president position but did not get it. "We interviewed quite a few people over eight months," Immerman said. "We were very thrilled when Doug became available and feel he has the perfect combination of skills and knowledge. He already has the respect of the physicians." Patients might see the largest benefit in a planned computer system. The idea is that eventually each doctor will have a computer in his office. When one Oak Leaf doctor refers a patient to another Oak Leaf doctor, the second doctor can simply look up the patient 's name in the computer and find lab and X-ray results, instead of waiting for them to be delivered.In addition, patients won 't be required to fill out new forms for each new doctor they see because that information also will be on the computer network, Immerman said.Twenty additional Eau Claire doctors have expressed interest in the network. All city independent doctors are interested in Oak Leaf, Immerman claimed. Other independent doctors in Chippewa Valley communities have been invited to join. Oak Leaf requires interested physicians to go through a credentialing process, including providing a copy of licenses and records of interactions with hospitals.The network will discuss its relationship with area hospitals Trembath said. "The hospitals will need to be involved. We will talk to Sacred Heart and Luther" and Chippewa Valley hospitals, he said. The network has been in the works for more than a year and was being discussed as early as 1985 Over the last year, independent doctors met every other week to create the network. "It 's a legal entity, stock has beer bought, and money's been spent," Trembath said, adding that some details and services are still in the works.Before Oak Leaf, independent doctors were members of Western Wisconsin Physician Association which did some marketing but was a loosely knit organization Immerman said. "The structure is solid, the interest is solid and the purpose is solid," Immerman said of Oak Leaf . "I think it 's going to be successful."Eau Claire Leader-Telegram
Thursday August 4, 1994 |
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