UNC affiliates with Wake Heart in wake of health care reform

In the wake of health care reform, UNC Hospitals is following the national trend of other public hospital systems acquiring private physicians’ practices.

UNC Hospitals is affiliating with Wake Heart and Vascular Associates to expand its specialist network and potentially help make up for charity care expenses in the future.

The affiliation places the 23 cardiologists who are part of the private practice in UNC’s system, said Dr. Cam Patterson, chief of the division of cardiology for UNC Hospitals and chief physician for the UNC Center for Heart and Vascular Care.

Patterson is part of the team who put the proposal together.

The affiliation will begin formally at the beginning of 2011, he said. No funds are currently changing hands.

“They want to have a strong practice of people who can pay in order to subsidize the charity care they do,” said Dr. Hadley Callaway, the past president of the N.C. Medical Society, referring to UNC Hospitals. “UNC does way more charity care than anybody else in the state.”

The technology and procedures used by cardiologists make money for hospitals in reimbursements, he said. The reimbursements could help UNC make up for the millions it is losing in charity care.

There is no plan to physically move the practice to UNC Hospitals. The University would prefer having Wake Heart expand to UNC Hospitals or UNC-owned Rex Health Care, Callaway said.

The private practice chose to affiliate with UNC Hospitals as opposed to WakeMed Health and Hospitals, he said.

“We offered the group a lot of freedom and ability to partner with an academic institution, and those were features that were very attractive to them,” Patterson said.

Dr. Michael Zellinger, president and managing partner for the private practice, said he is optimistic about the affiliation with UNC Hospitals even though it was forced by the health care reform.

“The changes in reimbursements are forced on everyone,” Zellinger said. “We’re forced to align with a hospital.”

A result of the reform, private physicians’ practices that partner with large public hospitals could receive better reimbursement rates from insurance companies, Callaway said.

By the end of the year, 40 percent of cardiology practices in the country might be affiliated with public hospitals, he said.

But a private practice might lose autonomy when acquired by a hospital, Patterson said.

“And if the doctor wants to make another private practice, they have to pay a fine or move to another town,” Callaway said.

Private practices typically get reimbursed at a rate 30 percent less than public hospitals because it is easier for the public hospitals to negotiate, Callaway said.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.