Last month, the seasoned healthcare team behind Emergency Physician Partners (EPP) announced the formation and launch of this new company focused exclusively on partnering with emergency medicine physicians. EPP plans to collaborate with leading emergency medicine practices nationwide to help physicians preserve clinical independence while being positioned for financial success in an ever-changing and highly regulated healthcare environment.
Claritas Capital Equity Group – a Nashville-based investment firm which primarily focuses on healthcare, technology, and business services companies –has granted the physician partnership organization access to more than $25 million to close the acquisition of emergency medicine physician practices, which is expected to start this first quarter of 2016.
“Successfully operating the administrative side of an emergency medicine practice has become more difficult and demanding in today’s complex healthcare environment,” said Christopher Kelly, EPP founder, chairman, president and CEO. “We founded EPP because we understand how valuable true partnership can be to physicians during these uncertain times. Our unique model allows emergency physicians to preserve their clinical independence, provide better quality care, and have an experienced business partner to handle the administrative burdens of running their practices.”
Kelly brings more than 20 years of senior management experience with healthcare companies, including AmSurg Corp., The Little Clinic, Quorum Health Resources and, most recently, U.S. Anesthesia Partners.
In addition to Kelly, EPP’s senior management team includes hospital financial management veteran Brady Sturgeon, who serves as founder, executive vice president and chief financial officer for the new company. Previously, Sturgeon was vice president of Development for LHP Hospital Group. In addition, founder Brian White will serve as executive vice president and chief operating officer. White was most recently founder and managing partner of Competitive Solutions, a management consulting firm specializing in hospital-employed physician management and physician practice operations.
EPP is the first single-specialty organization dedicated to partnering exclusively with emergency medicine physician groups. Today, approximately 20,000 of the country’s 45,000 emergency physicians remain independent. Hospital and payer consolidation have increased significantly following the passage of the Affordable Care Act, making the environment more difficult and uncertain for emergency medicine physicians.
“The emergency medicine space remains largely unconsolidated, with nearly 3,000 of the country’s 5,000 hospitals contracting directly with independent emergency physician groups,” said Don McLemore, founder and partner at Claritas. “We share EPP’s vision for the opportunity to strengthen these physician practices by bringing them together.”
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