UW Medical Foundation Completes Merger

Eight hundred physicians and 60 clinics in southern Wisconsin found a common home last week through a merger of the UW Medical Foundation and Physicians Plus Medical Group.

The merger was achieved when the UW Medical Foundation acquired Physicians Plus stock for $8 million. For at least the next two years, Physicians Plus will operate as a division of the UW Medical Foundation, to be called UW Health- Physicians Plus. The combined group will include more than 800 physicians with full-time faculty appointments at the UW Medical School.

“Bringing together these physicians will enhance the UW Medical School’s education and clinical research opportunities,” says Medical School Dean Philip Farrell. “This affiliation greatly adds to the Medical School’s mission of training future generations of physicians.”

The Medical Foundation was formed in 1996 to support the UW Medical School’s education, research and patient-care missions. Prior to the merger, it included 575 physicians and 275 nonphysician employees.

Effective April 1, members of Unity Health Plans and Physicians Plus Insurance Corp. can receive care from any physician in the combined group, following the referral guidelines of their health plans. Those members will continue to use UW Hospital, Meriter Hospital or other hospitals as allowed by their plans.

“The joining of UW Medical Foundation physicians’ world-renowned medical research, education and treatment with Physicians Plus’ highly regarded community-based health care creates a new medical model for the region,” Venkat Rao, president of the Medical Foundation, said in announcing the merger.

Rao noted that Group Health Cooperative contracts with the foundation for specialized medical treatment and primary care at selected sites. Though it is not part of the merger, eventually Group Health Cooperative members will also have access to specialists within the combined group.

“This integration will provide patients with more choices,” says Laurence Rothstein, Physicians Plus board chair, “including greater access to primary-care doctors and specialists, enhanced access to technological innovations and the ability to seek treatment at multiple clinical locations.”

Rothstein says that Physicians Plus and the UW Medical Foundation have had a historical relationship. Many Physicians Plus doctors hold faculty appointments at the UW Medical School and provide education and training to medical students and residents.