ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, January 20, 1996             TAG: 9601200010
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: A-6  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER 


MEDICAL PRACTICES UNITE PHYSICIANS AIM FOR 'ONE-STOP SHOP'

Ten medical practices in Southwest Roanoke have merged as Physicians Care of Virginia P.C. to market their services to industry and consumer groups and have a larger voice in what kind of health care patients receive.

The 45 doctors range from cardiologists to nephrologists. The group already has identified another six or so specialty practices it would like to have join, said Dev Jarratt, the new organization's chief executive officer.

"We aim to be a full-service clinic," Jarratt said.

Along with his new duties, Jarratt will continue to manage Valley Nephrology Associates, which has become a division of Physicians Care.

The merger, announced Friday, actually became effective Jan. 1 and had been in the works for two years, Jarratt said.

He expects it will take another two years to complete centralization of all the practices' office services, such as billing and collections.

For one thing, centralization requires finding a site. No practice in the group has a building large enough to accommodate the combined office functions, he said.

Patient services will remain separate for each practice, but the groups expect to save money from merged administrative duties. The savings will offset the cuts in fees that will be necessary for the group to compete for business, said Dr. Jack Ballenger, president of Physicians Care and a member of Valley Nephrology Associates.

"There are good things and bad things about the U.S. health care system. should be," he said.

The physicians wanted to merge before managed care had much of a foothold in the area, Ballenger said. The doctors wanted to be strong enough in numbers to have a voice on health care issues, especially those involving patient access and quality of care.

It is difficult for individual or small group practices to deal with the pressures to offer more services, give quality care and at the same time cut costs, Ballenger said.

"What consumers are wanting is more of a one-stop shop," he said.

Among the specialists that Physicians Care does not yet have are orthopedic and plastic surgeons and ear-nose-throat specialists.

One way the new group plans to expand its specialties is by networking with other groups. Ballenger said Physicians Care wants to work with primary care groups owned by area hospitals and with the new Blue Ridge Primary Care, a similar corporation formed last year.

Blue Ridge represents more than 100 doctors in an area bound by Martinsville, Abingdon and New Market.

Ballenger said he couldn't think of a health care entity that would be displeased by the new corporation. Contracts that the individual practices hold with insurance companies will have to be renegotiated for the group as a whole, but he said he doesn't expect that will be a problem.

Other officers are Dr. William Pasley of Jefferson Surgical Clinic, vice president; Dr. Carl Bivens of Endocrinology Associates, secretary; and Dr. Robert Rude of Cardiology Associates, treasurer.

In addition to the practices represented by the officers, the corporation includes Gastroenterology Consultants of Southwest Virginia; Gastrointestinal Associates; Medmac, operated by Drs. Antonio Donato and Stephen Hill; and the individual practices of Drs. John Albert Hagy Jr., Frederick Swartzendruber, and Sam Williams II.

The only new employee hired by the merger was Julia Polk, who will be vice president of finance.


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