Calif. medical group partnering with UCSF

Pacific Partners Management Services and its 803-physician Individual Practice Association Medical Group of Santa Clara County have agreed to collaborate with UCSF Medical Center and create an integrated healthcare system in the San Francisco area, according to a news release.

The parties signed a letter of intent on March 22 and could finalize the deal by the end of June. Individual Practice Association Medical Group of Santa Clara County is physician-owned with more than 60 medical specialties. It's a subsidiary of Foster City, Calif.-based Pacific Partners. Pacific Partners formed a medical group last year that includes the Individual Practice Association physicians. Pacific Partners will now take its Pacific Partners Medical Group toward an employed-physician model.

“By joining the expertise of an academic medical center with a highly regarded management services organization and an established community of physicians, we are laying the foundation to answer society's call for more integrated models of care,” said Jay Harris, UCSF Medical Center's chief strategy and business development officer, in the release.

Pacific Partners is also taking steps toward forming an HMO and will finalize its application for a Knox-Keene license. Under California's Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act, health plans like Pacific Partners Health Plan must apply for a license with the state's Managed Health Care Department to form an HMO.

Follow Ashok Selvam on Twitter: @MH_aselvam