PORT ANGELES — A new proposal to avert closing the Virginia Mason Clinic landed Thursday amid negotiations among clinic doctors, their Seattle-based corporate employer and Olympic Medical Center.
Clinic physicians asked Virginia Mason-Seattle to sustain its Port Angeles satellite until Oct. 1, when it would link itself to Olympic Medical Center.
Otherwise, the doctors could be jobless after April 30 — Virginia Mason’s announced departure date — and the clinic’s 19,000 patients could find themselves without primary care.
Basically, the doctors’ request would extend by five months a transition plan devised last fall by Olympic Medical Center CEO Mike Glenn.
Under the strategy, the medical center would buy the clinic building at 433 E. Eighth St. It also would provide support services like payroll and billing to the doctors, but preserve their independent status.
Known as the Twin Falls Plan, the alliance would boost Medicare reimbursements by 70 percent due to switching billings to Part A, which covers hospitals, from Part B, which covers doctors.
Olympic Medical Center would collect the reimbursements and distribute them to physicians according to how much work each doctor performed.
Reactions were muted
Virginia Mason-Seattle and Olympic Medical Center had muted reactions to the doctors’ new proposal.
“We are reviewing the proposal and continuing our relationships with all parties,” said Marnee Iseman, a Virginia Mason vice president.
Olympic Medical Center spokeswoman Bobbie Beeman said administrators will discuss the proposal when they meet Wednesday with representatives of Virginia Mason-Seattle and the doctors.
However, a physicians’ spokesman was optimistic for its success.
Dr. Paul Pederson told the PDN Thursday that the proposal might eliminate the need for seven-figure transition costs.
The doctors still would face a delay in accounts receivable, but the accounts would be owned by the hospital, he said.
The plan would assure “continuity of safe patient care during a planned transition,” Pederson said.