Margolis

0

Robert Margolis

Managing Partner and CEO

HealthCare Partners

Dr. Robert Margolis has headed HealthCare Partners, the largest independent physician group in California, ever since its formation in 1992. He also was a founding partner of its predecessor, the California Primary Physicians Medical Group.

HealthCare Partners consists of 300 full-time primary care physicians, and 3,000 to 4,000 specialists under contract. It was formed in response to managed care plans’ need for large provider groups.

It provides care to about 120,000 Angelenos every month and generated $320 million in revenues last year.

But it is now at a crossroads, with the group last year slipping into the red for the first time ever. Margolis declined to disclose the amount of the group’s 1997 loss, but said 1998 will see a return to profitability, thanks to a 10 percent workforce reduction.

“Almost all medical groups have had substantial losses over the past two years,” he said. “Over that period, there has been a 15 percent reduction in premiums, at a time when medical inflation was 1 to 3 percent, resulting in an 18 to 20 percent real reduction. That’s why everybody’s hurting. The only winners have been employers.”

But that landscape has been shifting in recent months, with HMOs instituting double-digit premium increases and providing greater choice. While the premium increases are expected to trickle down to physicians, a welcome event for HealthCare Partners, Margolis is concerned.

“This movement toward maximizing choice is moving us back toward indemnity insurance, which isn’t bad, but nobody can afford to pay for it,” Margolis said.

Margolis said that while patients want greater health care choice and access, those picking up the tab (employers and the government) are unwilling pay for it.

“The desires of patients vs. the government’s and employers’ willingness to pay is likely to become a source of significant conflict in the years ahead,” Margolis said. “The only two parts of our economy where the buyer and user are different are health care and toys.”

HealthCare Partners’ physician group is only one part of the organization that Margolis oversees. The company also includes HCP Ltd., a practice management company; HealthCare Partners Institute, a not-for-profit research organization; and the Camden Group, a medical consulting firm.

At the end of 1996, Margolis retired from his practice as an internist and medical oncologist to devote his full attention to leading HealthCare Partners.

“While I miss working directly with patients, which is a primary motivation for being a physician,” he said, “being in a position of physician leadership in a time of significant change and chaos has its own rewards.”

No posts to display