Detroit Medical Center To Sell Its Primary Care Clinics by April

The 11 primary care clinics currently owned by the Detroit Medical Center will likely be sold to private owners by April 1, the Detroit Free Press reports. The system is selling the clinics after losing money on them for years; this year, DMC expects to lose $21.6 million on the clinics. About 12% of the clinics' patients are uninsured or Medicaid beneficiaries. Some community advocates are concerned that once the clinics become privately owned, they will no longer serve such patients, the Free Press reports. "If they sell these clinics, who will buy them? What kind of service will the constituents of Detroit receive from these clinics?" the Rev. Joseph Jordon, who heads the Coalition for Health Care Equity, said. DMC ombudsman Juliette Okotie-Eboh responded that the system hopes to help maintain the clinic's public mission. Doctors currently working in the clinics will have first right to buy or lease the facilities. The system will stop paying salaries and malpractice insurance premiums for the nearly 100 clinic doctors by the end of March. The doctors will be eligible for stipends -- $2,500 for an individual or up to $10,000 for a group -- to help pay for their transition to private practice. DMC also has agreed to hire a consulting firm to teach doctors how to bill for services and "other administrative functions" that they did not have to do as DMC employees (Norris, Detroit Free Press, 11/21).