Hartford Business Journal

10 Hartford Business Journal • February 10, 2020 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Natalie Missakian Special to the Hartford Business Journal W hen Starling Physicians decided late last year to appoint businessman Jim Faircloth as its new CEO, it wasn't just a leadership change for the multispeci- ality medical group. It was a paradigm shift. As one of Connecticut's largest phy- sician-owned groups still standing in an era of mass consolidation, Starling has billed itself as a more personalized alternative to the large hospital-owned practices that have become the norm around the state in recent years. And for its seven-decade history, it's always been led by one of its own — a practicing doctor who doubled part time as the group's top executive. But amid an increasingly com- plex and competitive healthcare landscape, Starling's executive team realized the old way of doing things was no longer working, and that it could benefit from a full-time busi- nessperson at the helm. So last summer, the partners ap- proved a bylaws change allowing its board to hire the group's first-ever non-physician CEO, paving the way for Faircloth, a veteran medical-group practice executive from North Caro- lina, to assume the role on Jan. 6. "There was a psychological or emotional component to it where we had to let go of the model that we cherished in our hearts," said Starling Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Posner. "But in real terms, I think it's going to be good for us. It's going to put us in a good position as physicians to be able to keep doing what we do, and to be competitive with all the forces around us." The decision comes amid a grow- ing shift in health care toward cor- poratization, a transformation fueled by mega-hospital mergers, the rise of retail pharmacy clinics in drugstores like CVS and Walgreens and an increasing number of independent physicians being absorbed by hospi- tal systems, larger physician groups or even insurance companies. Many of the same dynamics behind those changes also played a role in Starling's leadership shift. Posner said it was becoming increasingly difficult — in fact, near impossible — for a part-time physician CEO to handle the mushrooming adminis- trative and regulatory tasks, spurred in part by passage of the Affordable Care Act a decade ago, while still de- voting ample time to their patients. The group also needed someone with the business savvy to negoti- ate with payers and shepherd the group's transition away from solely fee-for-service reimbursement toward a mix of new payment mod- els that reward doctors for better health outcomes and cost savings. "Jim brings a wealth of experience across the entire constellation of what we need done, including a lot of things that didn't exist 10 years ago — things that are fairly new and that most of our physicians aren't trained in," Posner said. Reviews are mixed about how the grow- ing corporati- zation trend is impacting care and healthcare costs. Angela Mattie, profes- sor of healthcare management at Quinnipiac University, said having a trained business person at the helm could keep costs down and create a better working environment for doctors, which in turn helps patients. Healthcare Inc. Starling Physicians' businessman CEO choice underscores corporatization of healthcare industry Starling Physicians' top executives include: (from left) Board Chair Dr. Sarit Patel, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Michael Posner, CEO Jim Faircloth, Chief Administrative Officer Tracy King, and CFO Gary Golliher. FOCUS: HEALTH CARE Continued on page 12 >> Angela Mattie, Professor of Healthcare Management, Quinnipiac University PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED

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