VENTURA : Clinic Will Merge With Larger Group

A clinic that serves 50,000 patients in western Ventura County announced Friday that it intends to affiliate with UniHealth, a California-based managed health care group.

The change will have no immediate effect on patients of Buenaventura Medical Clinic, said administrator Tom Becker. Patients will continue to choose their own doctors and may obtain care using the same medical insurance, Becker said.

The clinic’s staff of 57 physicians will not change either, he said. Secretaries and other support staff, however, will become employees of UniHealth, and patients may see the UniHealth name on medical bills, Becker said.

Doctors decided to merge with the larger health care group because it gives them more influence with insurers when setting prices for medical services, Becker said.

“Quite frankly, when you’re the size we are, it’s hard to have any meaningful control of prices that you are paid by insurers,” he said.

Buenaventura Medical Clinic was founded in 1950. It has two clinics in Ventura, one in Oxnard and one in Camarillo, as well as medical service agreements with some physicians in Santa Paula and Fillmore.