OrthoVirginia and Advanced Orthopaedics, both based in Richmond, have merged, effective July 1.
Here are four takeaways:
1. With the addition of Advanced Orthopaedics, OrthoVirginia includes more than 100 physicians.
2. The merged practices also include office locations in the Richmond and Lynchburg areas as well as central and northern Virginia.
3. Advanced Orthopaedics will change its name to OrthoVirginia, however, it will maintain its current practice locations.
4. This is the second merger for OrthoVirginia in 2016. In January, the Orthopaedic Center of Central Virginia in Lynchburg merged with OrthoVirginia.
http://www.beckersspine.com/orthopedic-spine-practices-improving-profits/item/32140-orthovirginia-advanced-orthopaedics-merge-4-takeaways.html
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Senator Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax) introduced SB 752 during the General Assembly session in response to his, and other’s, observation that some physician practices (mostly orthopaedic) have refused to see patients when the cause of injury is auto accident or some similar personal injury. His willingness to explore the situation with the stakeholders (doctors, trial attorneys, insurers) led to the bill be “carried over” to next session.
A link to the bill is below but the legislation would require that:
Any provider contract between a carrier and a participating provider, or its contracting agent, shall contain specific provisions that prohibit the participating provider from refusing or declining, in whole or in part on the basis of the mechanism of the injury sustained by an enrollee, to accept an injured enrollee as a patient or to provide covered services to an injured enrollee.
SB 752 – https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?161+ful+SB752
Senator Surovell recognizes that private businesses may decide with whom they serve but that the cause of the condition shouldn’t be grounds for automatic refusal. We have some understanding that most health insurance contracts require that network providers see patients who are in that network.
In response to an inquiry on a trial attorney listserve, Senator Surovell has been receiving feedback from his peers that this is an issue. In several cases the attorneys named practices that have refused to see patients/clients once the cause of injury is identified. We’d like to try to address this without legislation and could perhaps do so through education of the various professional circles involved.
Please comment on the issue and your practice’s policy so that we can have a clearer understanding of perception and reality.
Cal Whitehead
Commonwealth Strategy Group
118 N. 8th Street
Richmond, VA 23219
804.389.2825
[email protected]