PROVIDENCE – Arches Medical Group recently announced that it is leaving CharterCARE Provider Group, a member of Prospect Medical Holdings, and bringing its 40 Rhode Island primary care providers to Integra Community Care Network LLC, an affiliate of Care New England Health System.
“Arches was created with the goal of reinventing the way primary care is delivered,” said Arches founder Dr. Chris Kryder. “We want to increase access and quality for patients and remove barriers that lead to physician burnout and frustration. The Rhode Island health care market, which we entered this year, is fragile. Integra provides the stability we need to fulfill the promise of primary care for the communities we serve.”
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Scott Wilson, a physician with Arches in Cumberland, said it was important to be part of a network that values and engages physicians in ideas to improve primary care.
“We also wanted a proven and trusted name that was innovative and willing to think about health care in nontraditional terms. We found these qualities in the welcoming and physician-centric leadership of Integra,” Wilson said.
Integra has been in the Rhode Island market for more than 10 years and has experience working with health plans and social service organizations.
A spokesperson for Arches said the decision to switch from CharterCARE to Integra had been several months in the making.
CharterCARE’s parent company, Prospect, has been through several legal and financial struggles. Most recently a judge ordered Prospect, which owns Roger Williams Medical Center and Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, to pay more than $17 million it owes to vendors. The order came after R.I. Attorney General Peter F. Neronha’s Office filed a lawsuit in November stating Prospect had violated several terms of a 2021 sale agreement that allowed the ownership change of the two hospitals.
Prospect says it has complied with the order, yet Neronha filed a motion in July to hold the private-equity company in contempt of the judge’s decision.
Kryder told Providence Business News that aligning Arches with CNE and Integra is “critical” for the health of the organizations. He also said CNE’s ownership of Women & Infants, Butler and Kent County Memorial hospitals is important for comprehensive primary care.
“We are so pleased to welcome Arches Medical Group and its primary care providers into the Integra network,” said Dr. Ana Tuya Fulton, Integra president and chief operating officer. “Bringing more outstanding clinicians together, especially a group such as Arches that [shares] our desire to create true primary care transformation, allows us to improve the services to and health of more Rhode Islanders. Equally important, we can build a system where primary care teams feel joy in work again.”
Katie Castellani is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Castellani@PBN.com.
