PeaceHealth

And finally, Western Washington University is buying a Bellingham health care complex with plans to open a new College of Health Sciences there.

The PeaceHealth South Campus site includes the former St. Luke's Hospital, an administrative building, and an eight-unit apartment complex.

The foundation for WWU and alumni is giving the university a grant to pay for the $12.5 million deal.

The university president says the new college will support expanded health education and Research and training, Peace Health will get a separate parcel of land in Bellingham as part of the deal and says it plans to develop facilities there in the future.

So it stands to reason that helping people to avoid the causes of cardiovascular disease has to be a major front in healthcare.

And it just so happens that the largest hospital in our region, PeaceHealth, is pursuing such a strategy.

Today on the show, you'll hear from two cardiologists from PeaceHealth about the focus of their practice, which today is centered on prevention.

Dr. Eric Muller and Dr. Kristen Linsmeier, they're both cardiologists at PeaceHealth's Oregon Heart and Vascular Institute.

Doctors, thanks so much for coming on.

Welcome.

And so from a, from a lifestyle standpoint, which is what I often focus on with my patients and, you know, again, the nutrition that we should be eating and that sort of thing.

I actually have a, um, a list of resources that I give people on their after visit summary along the lines of what Dr. Moeller just said, things that I have vetted, I've read, I've listened to, documentaries I've watched, which I know are evidence-based, they're science-based, and I say these are great resources that you can rely that the information is correct.

I've never seen anybody complain about that, like, "We gotta get rid of this corporate practice of medicine law." What this one does that's different is it outlaws a mechanism that these corporations use to circumvent the CPOM law, and that is the MSO PC friendly physician model.

So if you remember when I talked about Eugene Emergency Physicians and what happened there is PeaceHealth had a contract with Eugene Emergency Physicians.

PeaceHealth decided, "We're not gonna renew your contract.

Uh, by the way, y- you know, EEP," that's what they're called, EEP, "you docs, you're doing a great job.

That's...

We're actually just- we just don't wanna do this anymore with you." They didn't get a good reason, which is the case most of the time.

And so instead of renewing that contract with the physicians who were doing a great job, they gave that contract to Apollo MD, which is one of these non-private equity corporations based out of Atlanta, all the way across the country.

But that corporation itself, Apollo MD, the corporation cannot directly employ the physicians working at PeaceHealth.

So the relationship itself is treated as protection.

But tenure of a relationship didn't stop PeaceHealth from growing.

renegotiating everything through an RFP, you can't ignore the fact that nearly every day a negotiation channel is open between the group and the hospital.

It might not look like one on first glance, but it is.

But when you take...

Let's take PeaceHealth and Eugene Emergency Physicians.

All right.

Eugene Emergency Physicians, independent group.

Yeah.

Had a contract for 30 years with PeaceHealth.

PeaceHealth said, nope, sorry, we're going to go with Apollo MD, this company out of Atlanta.

That, in the...

Well...

Key published case, October of 25, Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal of claims by more than 80 PeaceHealth employees fired.

Okay, that's different.

They allowed the dismissal of claims.