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April 15, 2022

Reliant Medical Group suspends taking on new adult primary care patients

Photo | Grant Welker Reliant Medical Group is based in Worcester.
By Alexander MacDougall

Reliant Medical Group, the second-largest physician group in Central Massachusetts, has temporarily stopped taking any new adult primary care patients.

The move applies to all Reliant locations, which span across Worcester County and the MetroWest area. The move comes in the wake of staffing shortages at the group, a problem augmented across the healthcare industry by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The health and well-being of our patients and the communities we serve is our top priority,” said Linda Coccola, Reliant’s chief communications and administrative officer, in an email to Worcester Business Journal. “We have temporarily paused accepting new adult patients as we balance the need to serve as many patients as we can, while providing a positive care experience.”

Several Reliant laboratory services have been temporarily closed, including its laboratory services in Framingham, Shrewsbury, and Westborough. The closures are a result of COVID-related staffing shortages, according to Reliant Medical Group’s website. 

While no longer taking any primary care patients, Reliant continues to operate walk-in care services at its ReadyMed urgent care locations in Worcester, Auburn, Hudson, Leominster, and Milford. Though its Milford location had been closed for around a year due to staffing shortages, it resolved those issues and reopened for three days a week, according to a March 29 post on the Reliant website.

In 2021, Reliant Medical Group had a total of 306 participating physicians, which ranked second in the Worcester and MetroWest areas, only behind UMass Memorial Medical Group in Worcester. The number of physicians had been declining in 2018, when the group had been acquired by Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. The number of physicians has slowly gone back up since the acquisition, although staffing issues continue to persist. 

Reliant has 25 locations, mainly serving communities in the Worcester, Leominster, and Framingham areas.

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2 Comments

Anonymous
April 17, 2022
When primary care is the main gatekeeper for access to specialty services when needed, this is a problem for anyone who did not cross the moat before the drawbridge went up. That said, I want to believe that concern for existing patients was the legitimate reason, but a change in ownership such as Optum taking possession, poses a risk to the entire patient base in the region, in my opinion.
Anonymous
April 16, 2022
This is in light of UMass and the Worcester chamber opposing and the state not approving MassBrigham's Westborough expansion proposal. Just great. Now access to health care has been limited further.
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