The healthcare management system in discussion with New Hanover Regional Medical Center took over the management of all NHRMC physicians’ private practices in 2009.

“What Jack [Barto] and John [Gizdic] did was approach us to help with their system integration. We recruit and employ physicians.

This spares them a fairly significant infrastructure to manage a physician network,” said Joe Piemont, president of Carolinas Healthcare System.

NHRMC physicians are among the 500 physician practices that Carolinas Healthcare System manages. It handles systems such as billing, collecting, staffing and information technology compatibility within the NHRMC system.

CHS also manages 33 affiliate hospitals in North and South Carolina.

“We’ve been talking with [NHRMC] formally about this kind of relationship for more than a year,” he said.

If NHRMC were to become an affiliate, it would be among CHS’ largest managed facilities, Piemont said.

For overseeing a hospital’s day to day operations, CHS charges a management fee of between 0.5 percent and 2 percent of an affiliate hospital’s revenue depending on its size and complexity, Piemont said.

Typically, after CHS enters a contract with a new affiliate, it analyzes the hospital’s business and clinical offices and operations to see if there is room for improvement. It offers the hospital’s board of directors its suggestions, who ultimately decide to pass or veto the proposed changes.

CHS affiliates are all non-profit organizations. Although it manages Columbus Regional in Whiteville, it has not been actively seeking other hospitals in the region.

“We generally go only where we have been asked and where we think we can add something,” he said.

“We look for people on the front end who are philosophically compatible.”