Some of the teaching coordination between MemorialCare Health system and UC Irvine were already in place a while back long before 
UnitedHealthcare began buying up the various doctor groups in the OC. I learned that when I did an interview with Miller’s Children’s Hospital, part of the system. With similar names between the hospital system and the Foundation, it’s sometimes confusing so I try to make sure I get my commenting correct. Here’s an example of the United Foundation subsidiary when they acquired Nautilus MD group who manages Greater Newport Physicians, so they don’t own that group but own the company who manages them.
United Healthcare Subsidiary MemorialCare Medical Foundation Acquires Nautilus Healthcare Management Who Manages Greater Newport Physicians-MDs Become Part of MemorialCare System–Subsidiary Watch
The big start here was getting ownership by United via their Optum subsidiary just about 3 years back and most other acquisitions continued after this initial purchase and then followed with the acquisition of Monarch Healthcare the other big doctor group in the OC. Between Monarch and Greater Newport Physicians they are the lion’s share of the doctors groups in the OC.
OptumHealth (Subsidiary of United Healthcare) Takes Over Memorial IPA in California-Subsidiary Watch
United Healthcare Acquisition of Monarch Healthcare HMO Already Causing Confusion and Access Problems for Blue Shield Patients in Orange County
So now we have a joint effort of bringing in the
UC Irvine doctors (who already belong to one of the big doctor groups) to a joint effort to work with the United owned/managed group of doctors who not with UC Irvine necessarily to work in new primary care centers to open in California. Memorial Hospital system already has a few retail clinic locations in Albertson’s grocery stores in the OC.
Memorial Care Health Systems Opening 3 “HealthExpress” Walk In Clinics Inside Albertsons/Sav-On Stores – Orange County
Sometimes with the truckloads of subsidiaries you end up with items like mentioned below as with ACO efforts another subsidiary sells software to help hospitals.
Subsidiary Watch-Corporate Conglomerate Insurers Reduce Compensation Contracts Using One Subsidiary Then Market Same MDs With Another Subsidiary in Health IT
Here’s another group (link below) where again tracing the tiered subsidiaries at times becomes challenging too..if you don’t know who owns the subsidiaries it can be a bit confusing…see how the foundation subsidiary has controlling interest here and the other 49% is also owned by a subsidiary, Monarch.
“Beach Surgical Holdings, a joint venture between MemorialCare Medical Foundation and the national Surgical Care Affiliates (SCA) acquired a 51% interest in Digestive Disease Center, where SCA will provide strategic and day-to-day management services. Digestive Disease Center, located in Laguna Hills adjacent to Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, has been providing care to the community since 1988, and the new ownership interest furthers MemorialCare's integrated delivery system throughout the Southland. The remaining 49% interest is owned by the center's gastroenterology physician partners and Monarch HealthCare (owned by United too).”
UnitedHealthcare Making Bigger ACO Payments in the Future? Guess They Would Be When Either Attaining Ownership or 51% Controlling Interest in 130 Surgical Center Physicians With Beach Surgical Holdings, Another Subsidiary
No too long ago United had this to say as to where they
were looking for savings..doctor’s pay per their PR release (link below). Ask any doctor in the OC and they might tell you this is true and the AAFP confronted United about doctor pay several months ago as the use of complex and difficult to interpret contracts the doctors had to sign to be in network left them getting paid at rates less than Medicare. Doctors did a a little relief in this area this year as the Supreme Court ruled that doctors can now work as groups (the result of a United subsidiary lawsuit in New York) with litigating with insurance companies instead of it always being one doctor up against the corporation as that was what was in the contracts all doctors had to sign to be in network.
UnitedHealthCare Looks at Doctor’s Pay for Savings, Nothing New There Been Doing It for Years But Keep In Mind We Have the Annual Medicare Cut Fix on the Floor Again with Congress–Timing?
I find hard to believe this is a total mission of “shared passion” as the article states but one more about making money for shareholders (grin). If you have never looked at the long, long list of the subsidiaries, do it. I say that so you know where you dollar spent is going and so consumers have the ability to recognize some of the subsidiaries that put profits to the United Healthcare bottom line, it’s shocking and it allows the corporation to hang out under the radar with most having no clue as to how large some of the forming “too big to fail insurers” are getting. Link below is where I did some research on many of the subs I have blogged the last few years…breathtaking and eye opening…and like I said a big manifesto of ownership and management in the OC and most will be housed in the big corporate center they are building in .
Health Insurance Business Under the Radar With Tiered Subsidiaries–Where All the Action Takes Place With Mergers, Acquisitions and Profit Centers-Subsidiary Watch
One more under the subsidiary umbrella in the last couple months… 51% ownership of yet one more newly founded group…SimonMed…this gets interesting again watching the maximization of the “non profit” foundation owning 51% of the
new company Wave Imaging a subsidiary of MemorialCare Foundation, the subsidiary of United Healthcare. BD “LOS ANGELES & ORANGE COUNTY, CA: MemorialCare Medical Foundation, the physician group division of MemorialCare Health System in Southern California, announced it has entered into a joint venture partnership with SimonMed, a prominent imaging company, to operate five imaging centers in convenient locations throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties.”
MemorialCare Health System and UC Irvine Health said Wednesday that they will open a string of jointly operated primary-care health centers in Southern California.
The new centers will employ UC Irvine primary-care physicians and complement existing UC Irvine physician practices in Orange and Irvine, Calif. UC Irvine will collaborate with the MemorialCare Medical Foundation to develop the centers, hoping to leverage the not-for-profit arm's fundraising capabilities and expertise with physician practice management and operations.
“This affiliation demonstrates a steadfast commitment to integrated delivery of patient care, which is essential to providing excellent quality care while reducing costs to consumers, businesses and insurers,” said Barry Arbuckle, president and CEO of MemorialCare in a release. “All communities we serve will benefit from the affiliation of our not-for-profit, mission-driven systems, both with excellent reputations and strong financial performance.”
Last month, the foundation announced that its chief medical officer, Dr. Mark Schafer, will become CEO Jan. 1, replacing current CEO Patrick Kapsner.
MemorialCare is a five-hospital system based in Fountain Valley, Calif. The system includes Community Hospital Long Beach, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children's Hospital—all in Long Beach—as well as Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center in Fountain Valley and Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills. The system also operates more than 200 clinics in Los Angeles and Orange counties with 12,000 employees and 3,000 physicians.
UC Irvine, a major academic medical center, operates a 363-bed facility in Orange that is part of UC Health, the seven-hospital system operated by the University of California. UC Irvine's primary-care physicians will be included as providers in MemorialCare health plans contracts.
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