Aurora buys 2 more groups in Texas

[pathperson]

http://www.auroradx.com/2015/07/15/aurora-diagnostics-acquires-texas-hospital-pathology-practices/

Of interest because it is in my general region. Does anyone have any specific experience with their group being bought by a big lab recently? What usually happens to the pathologists who were not owners? Just curious....

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[pathstudent]

Non-owners obviously never become owners unless they find a new private practice. Not sure it is the same every time but usually the former owners and employee pathologists all make the same salary and benefits going forward as determined by Aurora. Aurora is run by people with real business full-time leadership skills so there may be pruning of positions to increase efficiency and per pathologist productivity.

Last time I read about them they were owned by a Denver based private equity firm KRG Capital. Those are they guys that make the big bucks off the pathologist's work.

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

Be prepared for a LOT of cold calls from those looking to escape.

 

[path24]

Pathologists are very much a commodity. The mills are getting bigger.

 

[coroner]

What usually happens to the pathologists who were not owners?

Depends on the practice situation. Without knowing specifics, we don't know if this acquisition will result in an increase or decrease in volume. If it's a decrease, then those who are not owners/juniors will be on the chopping block first. It is possible that everyone in the group are equal partners and they all take a pay cut. Or maybe, those who are senior partners agree to ride of in the sunset after the buyout...

Aurora is run by people with real business full-time leadership skills so there may be pruning of positions to increase efficiency and per pathologist productivity.

Translation: Let's see how we can get these scope monkeys to ramp up the RVU's even if it burns them out!

Be prepared for a LOT of cold calls from those looking to escape.

Run to hills...as the corporate tentacles extend their reach, rural medicine may be the last bastions of true private practice (and even they may become extinct). Texarkana, Arkansas or Montana is looking kinda nice...

Pathologists are very much a commodity.

All specialties including Pathology are becoming commoditized. We are just a cog in the wheel of the money-making machine that is health care in the United States run by the bureaucrats, politicians, and insurance companies/businessmen. And at the end of the day when you are a hospital/corporate-employed physician, you have to pee in a cup for a random drug screen just like the guy in housekeeping with a speech impediment...

 

[pathperson]

Run for the hills? Bryan/College Station and Tyler, Texas are already the hills as far as I am concerned. If it has literally gotten to the point where in order to find work and not be taken over, we must move to....the international space station?

 

[WEBB PINKERTON]

I have yet to see the senior partners "ride off into the sunset" after a buyout. My first job ended after a buyout and the non-owners/juniors all got chopped. You would think they would ride off like Keoma and say "A man who's free can never die." Instead of enjoying their freedom and pile of cash, the seniors usually stay on well into their 80s hogging jobs. I highly recommend the movie Keoma to anyone that is looking for something to watch this weekend.

 

[ZZPath]

Good luck to the hard working non partners at BVP/TPA. I hope your jobs are secure. You have made your bosses very rich!