FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
REGARDING THE ACQUISITION OF EMSOURCE, LLC BY EMP HOLDINGS
Q: Who is EMP Holdings?
A: EMP Holdings is a Canton, Ohio based management services organization (MSO) that provides management and billing services for Emergency Medicine Physicians, Ltd. (EMP).
Q: Who is EMSource?
A: Located in Roseville, California, EMSource, LLC is currently the management company for Emergency Physicians Medical Group (EPMG) of California.
Q: What are the details of the merger?
A: This is a merger in which the assets of EMSource will transfer to EMP Holdings in exchange for ownership interest in EMP Holdings. EMP and EPMG will remain independent. The two medical groups will contract independently with EMP Holdings for the provision of management and billing services.
Q: When will the merger become effective?
A: The expected closing date is June 1, 2004.
Q: Who are EMP and EPMG?
A: EMP and EPMG are both democratically managed, high quality emergency medicine providers. They are similar in that both strive to hire only board certified emergency physicians and invest significant resources in professional development and education.
Q: Why are EMP and EPMG partnering?
A: The decision was based on a shared desire to grow, improve overall service, and reduce overhead for our member physicians. The partnership will allow both EMP and EPMG to enjoy a national reputation and facilitate the growth of both groups on their respective coasts. This continued growth will enable each group to provide better services with fixed costs spread over a larger volume, which should reduce each physician’s overall cost.
Q: In what states are EMP and EPMG located?
A: EMP has contracts in Ohio, West Virginia, Connecticut, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania while EPMG has contracts in California, Hawaii and Nevada. At one time, EPMG was affiliated with two other groups located in Sacramento and Washington State, but those groups will probably remain independent and not partner with EMP Holdings.
Q: Will there be offices on both coasts?
A: Yes. There will be two management and billing offices- one in Canton, Ohio and another in Sacramento, California. However, the primary location for all administrative services will remain in Canton.
Q: How will this benefit EMP and EPMG patients?
A: The merger enables EMP and EPMG to continue to aggressively negotiate the cost of benefits and overhead with outside vendors, which will enable both groups to reduce overhead at the sites and the management company. The remaining funds will be available to the physicians at the site and will provide us with an additional edge in recruiting. The primary goals of the combined organization will be to continually enhance the quality of care and improve ED patient satisfaction.
Q: What will be the resulting statistics of this merger?
A: As a result of the merger, EMP and EPMG will provide emergency medical services to over 1.7 million patients annually at 58 hospitals in ten states with over 500 clinicians and 400 administrative employees.
Q: How will this affect staffing?
A: This merger will have no affect on the clinician staffing process. However, it is expected that a national platform will facilitate the recruitment of the highest quality emergency physicians and thus result in improved quality of care and patient satisfaction.
Q: In what other ways will this transaction benefit EMP?
A: One of the major benefits to EMP is the addition of EPMG’s Center for Emergency Medical Education (CEME), which provides medical education to national audiences. The two most prominent courses are the National Emergency Medicine Board Review and High Risk Emergency Medicine, a risk management course. This partnership allows both medical groups less expensive access to quality continuing education courses.
Q: In what other ways will this transaction benefit EPMG?
A: By virtue of this new arrangement, EPMG will be able to more rapidly modernize its billing system as well as implement process changes that will significantly reduce the cost of billing and coding to its physicians. Additionally, EPMG will have access to the risk retention group, securing access to affordable medical malpractice insurance.
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