AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – In a letter obtained by WJBF NewsChannel 6, the physicians group, will become autonomous in Augusta.
University Physicians Associates is the group of 400 physician stakeholders within 27 local practices that serve the CSRA under contract with University Hospital. The letter, authored by UPA Chairman Chris Carlson, goes on to assure its members that the group will remain solvent and they will be able to move into 2021 seamlessly.
The letter says, University Hospital blames a financial crisis caused by the COVID pandemic as the reason behind the move to pull its funding from the UPA group. Quoting the letter from Chairman Carlson, “The hospital has been dealing with a significant and financial crisis facing COVID and are concerned that the goals of the hospital and UPA may no longer be as closely aligned as in the past.”
Prior to being removed from the University Hospital website, the description of the contractual partnership stated University Hospital and University Physicians Associates jointly owned “Health Link” a Physician-Hospital Organization (PHO) with several divisions.
The physicians group leadership adds in the letter, it has done an in depth analysis of the network, staffing and employee responsibilities and while there will be some redistribution of duties they believe that once an independent group it will be able to keep the majority of its current employees.
Information about the joint agreement (as you see in the images above) between University Hospital and University Physician Associates have been removed the hospital’s website as of September 25th, WJBF has reached out to University Hospital for a comment and are waiting on a reply.
See the letter below
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