Summit Health buys 4 more LI medical practices

Four more Long Island medical practices are joining Summit Health, the Manhattan-based company that runs primary and specialty care offices as well as the CityMD chain of urgent care clinics. 

The newest member of the network will be North Shore Cardiac Imaging Family Medical Health, which is based in New Hyde Park and also has offices in the Queens neighborhoods of Bellerose, Corona, Elmhurst and Whitestone, Summit Health announced Monday.

The practice includes 12 doctors who specialize in cardiology, internal medicine, gastroenterology and bariatric medicine. The transaction was expected to close on Monday.

In June and July, Summit acquired the practices of Dr. Salvatore Trazzera of Heartpath Cardiovascular Services PLLC in Farmingdale; Dr. Michael Lastihenos and Dr. Richard Tabershaw of Suffolk Orthopaedic Associates P.C. in Bay Shore and family practitioner Dr. Adrian Lombardi of Bay Shore.

Summit did not disclose the financial terms of the transactions.

The physicians joining Summit “bring with them a wide range of primary and multispecialty services that include routine wellness visits, heart-related needs, orthopedic surgery and more,” Dr. Dan Frogel, chief medical officer for the New York region at Summit Health, said in a statement.

Summit now has 17 primary and specialty care practices in Nassau and Suffolk counties, in addition to its 36 CityMD walk-in urgent care clinics on the Island.

The newly merged practices will join Summit’s electronic medical records system. The company, Frogel said, is building "a connected care model that provides patients with an experience that is much easier to navigate."

Formed by the merger of CityMD and Summit Medical Group, Summit Health has more than 2,500 providers and more than 340 locations in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Oregon.

The physicians joining Summit’s network are part of a growing movement of doctors away from private practice, as the costs of record-keeping and other administrative work rise and, in some cases, payments from insurers decline.

In 2020, 49% of doctors worked in physician-owned practices, a drop of 11 percentage points since 2012 and the first time the share of doctors in private practice fell below half, the American Medical Association reported last year.

By Maura McDermott

maura.mcdermott@newsday.commauramcdermott

Maura McDermott covers health care and other business news on Long Island.