HEALTH PROVIDERS TO MERGE; LAKESIDE HEALTH JOINING MEDCO.Byline: Ben Sullivan Daily News Staff Writer Two San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. physician groups announced Tuesday that they will merge in the coming months, creating a company with $70 million in annual revenues and about 90,000 managed care enrollees. Lakeside Health Services health services Managed care The benefits covered under a health contract Inc. of Glendale and Medco Associates Inc. of Chatsworth say they will combine memberships of their respective medical groups to form an entity with about 200 primary-care physicians and 500 affiliated specialists in the San Fernando Valley, Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley and Santa Clarita Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, . Medco's Keystone Medical Groups has contracts to care for about 40,000 managed care enrollees in the region, while Lakeside treats about 50,000 enrollees, said Keystone Chief Executive Officer Keith Richman. Both companies had been approached in the past by other potential merger partners, including Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is a world-renowned hospital located in Los Angeles, California. History Cedars-Sinai is the result of a merger in 1961 between two major Los Angeles hospitals, Cedars of Lebanon and Mount Sinai Home for the Incurables, with Steve Broidy as and UniHealth, but had opted to go it alone, Richman said. Tuesday's proposed merger is an acknowledgment of the consolidation pressures local health-care providers are under, he said. ``Both Lakeside and Keystone to this point have remained independent and are committed to remaining physician-owned and -directed,'' Richman said. The proposed new company will be based in Glendale, Richman said. Beyond the desire to remain physician-owned, a driving force behind the proposed merger is cost savings, Richman said. ``We can save money on purchasing, reduce administrative costs administrative costs, n.pl the overhead expenses incurred in the operation of a dental benefits program, excluding costs of dental services provided. and have one information system instead of two,'' he said. The proposed merger must be approved by both companies' physician investors. |
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