Bay Area urology, oncology practices merge

Pacific Urology and Diablo Valley Oncology and Hematology Medical Group, both located in Contra Costa County in California, are merging to form a 13-physician group.

The practices gave two principal motivations for the move: stronger continuity of care and increasing economic pressures, including the imminent 27.4% drop in Medicare reimbursement expected for 2012.

"The costs of practicing medicine are escalating," said Stephen Taylor, MD, of Pacific Urology, Concord. "After exploring options exhaustively, we concluded that a merger secures the future for both organizations and for the quality of patient care."

The practices invested months evaluating an organizational structure to best meet patients’ needs through collaborative treatment of cancers of the prostate, kidney, and bladder, Dr. Taylor said. Both practices will retain their individual names but will now share infrastructure and resources such as information technology, business office processes, and clinic locations.

"In the end, it’s win-win for us and patients," said Matthew Sirott, MD, of Diablo Valley Oncology, Pleasant Hill. "Now we’ll jointly be able to see more patients in more locations, reduce overhead expenses, and collaborate more closely than ever."

Look for more on the growth of mergers in urology in Urology Times’ State of the Specialty report, coming in our December 2011 issue.

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