First Choice Healthcare Solutions Acquires First Choice Medical Group

By Space Coast Daily // April 21, 2012

THE BUSINESS OF HEALTHCARE

first-choice-595 — First Choice is located at 709 S. Harbor City Blvd, in Melbourne, Florida, on the first floor of the Marina Towers Building. (First Choice Healthcare image)

BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – First Choice Healthcare Solutions, Inc. announced its acquisition of First Choice Medical Group of Brevard, LLC, (FCMG) a multi-specialty medical group practice including orthopedics (both operative and non-operative), sports medicine, pain management and neurology located in Melbourne, Florida.

The purchase price for the acquisition was $2,524,000, of which approximately $1.14 million was paid in cash and the net balance was paid by issuing to the members of 976,179 pre-reverse split shares of the Company’s restricted common stock valued at $0.90 per share (which is 244,045 post-split shares).

Jones-Kris-180 — Kris Jones is Vice President of Medical Operations at First Choice Healthcare Solutions. (First Choice Healthcare image)

“We are excited to complete the acquisition of FCMG, which is a remarkable medical practice in its own right and will serve as the prototype for our future medical specialty units,” said Chris Romandetti, First Choice President and CEO.

“The Brevard practice is state-of-the-art and has some of the most highly trained professionals in the region. With the completion of the acquisition, we will continue to add skilled physicians in the areas of neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, interventional pain management and neurology to ensure our flagship facility is able to provide world-class care to our patients.

First Choice Medical Group aims to provide caring, comprehensive, high quality, cost effective care to patients with injuries and diseases of the musculoskeletal system. We strive to provide our patients with exemplary customer service by treating them with courtesy, respect, compassion and confidentiality. We attempt to minimize the inconveniences of treatment to our patients by providing prompt, courteous service. To this end, we offer as part of our practice, outpatient surgery and physical therapy. We promote quality medical care along the Space Coast through participation in hospital medical staff functions, benchmarking with similar organizations and participation with local and national medical societies. We participate with the local medical educational institutions to prepare new healthcare professionals for our community. We dedicate ourselves to visionary leadership in medical and business practice, being mindful of our commitment to the unique individuals who constitute the First Choice Medical Group.

“Furthermore, First Choice will offer the financial capability to implement a host of on-site ancillary services including, but not limited to, MRI, X-Ray and Aquatic Physical Therapy that are convenient for the patient and improve clinical outcomes. Beyond a comprehensive offering of services in a single, modern facility, all of the professionals at FCMG share an unwavering commitment to superlative patient care and customer service. That commitment permeates the entire First Choice organization and is the hallmark of our operations.”

Installation of Diagnostic and Rehabilitation Services

First Choice Medical Group of Brevard is located in a 68,000-square-foot facility on the first floor of Marina Towers, a Class A office building owned by First Choice. Installation of the diagnostic and rehabilitation services is underway and is expected to be completed in mid-2012.

This acquisition is the first of several to be carried out under the Company’s new business strategy, which provides incentives for certain physician specialists to remain in private practice despite economic pressures to become employed by hospitals and other health systems, while continuing to deliver first-class care to their patients.

First Choice is taking a fresh and innovative approach to medical group practices by adapting a scalable, retail services model that capitalizes on the changing dynamics in the multibillion-dollar medical services industry. First Choice’s model provides patients with access to high-quality medical services with a human touch, and allows physicians to focus their full attention on practicing medicine by freeing them from the burden of nonclinical, administrative functions.

“Physicians tell me time and time again they love to practice medicine, but are being squeezed out of private practice by current healthcare and business economic realities, and are being forced to make tough decisions — one of which is to join assembly line-like operations such as hospitals where they lose control over the patient relationship and are unable to participate in revenues from ancillary services,” said Romandetti.

“Our business model features developing and acquiring a network of efficient, professional multi-specialty practices and physicians, including neurology, orthopedics and pain management, among others, that utilize diagnostic and other ancillary services, together with a facility that will house state-of-the-art equipment for those services; including these ancillary services as part of the physicians’ group practice where appropriate, will provide additional revenues to the group that would otherwise be lost to others.”

Operational Efficiencies

First-Choice-docs-375 — First Choice Healthcare physicians include, top left, then clockwise: Richard P. Newman, MD; Anthony Lombardo, MD, FAAOS; Daniela Rusovici, MD, Ph.D; and Donald Vliegenthart, MD, ATP. (First Choice Healthcare image)

Additionally, First Choice builds financial and operational efficiencies into practices by providing all front- and back-office functions including the latest in paperless electronic patient scheduling and electronic medical record software, paperless billing systems, collections and cash-flow management without the significant fixed overhead of legacy leases, systems and contracts.

The Company has a strategic alliance with Medtrx, which brings unmatched expertise in billings and collections, as well as proprietary IT billing and collection software systems built from the ground up specifically for the medical industry. Medtrx has further customized their system to meet the specific needs of our prototype medical specialty unit.

“We believe ours is a scalable model that requires minimal capital expenditures,” said Romandetti. “Our current financial resources are sufficient to support our operations and near-term expansion plans.”

“Now with the completion of the acquisition of our first medical specialty unit, our plan is to expand with multiple clinical units by the end of 2013. Our business model provides for predictable cash flow and we expect to benefit from economies of scale as we build up our operations,” he said.

Effective April 2, 2012, the State of Florida issued a Health Care Clinic license to First Choice Medical Group of Brevard, LLC, the company’s first medical specialty unit. In addition, FCMG has been licensed for two additional locations in Brevard County, which will serve as satellite offices for FCMG’s main facility.

For more information log on to myfchs.com

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