“We doctor folks.”
For three decades, that’s been the fundamental underpinning of Privia Medical Group North Texas (PMGNTX). And it’s the first thing Dr. Larry Tatum, the former longtime president and CEO of the group says when asked what he is most proud of when reflecting on the last 30 years – the bottom line that matters most is taking good care of patients.
As PMGNTX begins its fourth decade serving patients in North Texas, some leadership transitions have taken place. After 30 years at the helm, Dr. Tatum has retired as president and CEO, though he remains Privia’s market president for North Texas.
Dr. Taylor Bradley is the new president of PMGNTX and John Lawley, CPA, MBA, who started with the company when he was 26, is now CEO. The group’s mission – to provide the best patient care possible by empowering doctors – remains unchanged.
What started as a consortium of less than three dozen primary care doctors has evolved into a multispecialty group with roughly 250 doctors and a total of 400 providers, including physician assistants, nurse practitioners and others. Including providers and support staff, around 2,200 people work under the PMGNTX banner.
In 2024, PMGNTX providers had more than 1.38 million patient encounters. Its physician members continue to receive accolades from patients and their peers – just this month, nearly four dozen PMGNTX physicians are recognized as “Top Doctors” in Fort Worth Magazine. (will link to article)
In the fast-changing world of health care, a world in which physicians are increasingly aligned with hospital systems or part of a venture capital group, how has an independent group like PMGNTX not only survived, but thrived?
Adapting to change, being nimble and embracing technology all played important roles. But adhering to that core mission – “we doctor folks” – explains PMGNTX’s remarkable success as much as anything.
“Our doctors show up every day to honor folks who entrust us with their care – we’ll figure out the business on the backside,” says Dr. Tatum. “Our goal was always to be a medical group sophisticated in the business of medicine – we never wanted to be a business that was trying to practice medicine.”
The Early Days
PMGNTX launched on January 1, 1995, when Dr. Tatum and 33 other physicians came together to form an organization that would allow small, independent health care practices to continue serving patients in North Texas. The group was called Texas Health Care.
The impetus for the new group was the emergence of the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) model that increasingly drove health care economics in the 1990s. “As doctors with small practices, we somewhat reluctantly concluded we needed to be part of something bigger than ourselves” to continue practicing medicine with autonomy, explains Dr. Tatum.
The initial 34 physicians included family practice, internal medicine and obstetricians and gynecologists. Some of the early challenges, according to Dr. Tatum, were creating centralized administrative systems to include billing, human resources, accounting, payroll and compliance. “Most of that scales pretty well once you have the basic framework,” Dr. Tatum noted.
Dr. Lynne Tilkin, a PMGNTX family practice physician, was a relatively new doctor at the time. “Back in the 90s, it was still the old way of doing things – you went to the bank, you hung your shingle and started seeing patients,” she explains.
As she was establishing her fledgling primary care practice, Dr. Tilkin was also working to join the staff at an area hospital. She was surprised to be given a contract that stipulated absurdly low reimbursement rates – and realized she had to look for other options.
“I started networking and going to meetings,” she recalls. That’s when she met Dr. Tatum and other doctors experiencing the same frustrations with the changing health care business model. “We all agreed we needed to create some clout for physician contracting and recognized we had an opportunity to create economies of scale” for the administrative side of medicine.
The person responsible for getting those core administrative functions off the ground in the mid-1990s was Mr. Lawley. Mr. Lawley describes his initial role as a “reporting guy” – someone who reconciled the medical billing system with the accounting system and tracked down anomalies.
The group continued to grow slowly into the new millennium, mainly by word of mouth.
Growth and New Opportunities
The group’s organic growth became supercharged in 2003, when a group of medical specialists looking to leave their multi-specialty group joined Texas Health Care.
“We went from 45 to 85 physicians overnight,” recalls Mr. Lawley. At that point, Texas Health Care became a leading multi-specialty group in Tarrant County and Mr. Lawley assumed the role of Operations Manager.
The JPS Partnership
In 2005, a new public-private partnership paved the way for positive dividends for the greater Tarrant County community. The surgeons at John Peter Smith Hospital (JPS), the public hospital in Tarrant County, joined Texas Health Care.
In a partnership that lasted for more than a decade, the Texas Health Care/JPS surgeons helped take the hospital to new heights.
In a 2012 interview, Dr. David McReynolds, then Chair of the surgical department at JPS, reflected on the partnership between JPS and Texas Health Care. He noted that prior to the mid-2000s, there was not always a great relationship between JPS doctors and the rest of the local medical community.
“I think what it did was go a really long way to unifying the medical community,” Dr. McReynolds said. “I think we have a medical community that has respect both ways now and that would have never happened if we hadn’t (become part of) Texas Health Care.”
JPS achieved a key benchmark during its partnership with THC – the hospital, for the first time, was verified as a Level I Trauma Center by the American College of Surgeons in 2010. Prior to this, Tarrant County had never had a Level I Trauma Center, a critical missing piece of essential health care. Trauma is the leading cause of death for younger adults in the United States, and Level I Trauma Centers are best equipped to treat those injuries and save lives. JPS was re-verified as a Level I Trauma Center twice during its partnership with THC.
“Texas Health Care’s partnership with JPS has been a vital contributing factor to our verification and designation as the only Level I Trauma Center in Tarrant County,” said Dr. Raj Gandhi, then JPS Trauma Medical Director in a 2011 interview. “The cohesiveness of the Texas Health Care team and our surgeons’ total and complete commitment to saving lives and providing the best care for every patient, every day, makes it possible for Tarrant County to have a Level I Center, saving lives in the most acute situations.”
Improving Women’s Health Care: Andrews Women’s Hospital
In the mid-2000s, Dr. Tatum, an OB/GYN, approached Baylor Health Care System (now Baylor Scott & White Health) officials with an idea for a new facility dedicated exclusively to women’s health care.
Dr. Tatum’s vision was to create a unique environment for female patients, one they could turn to for health care services throughout their lives – from childbirth to breast and heart health and other specialized services. Baylor leaders liked the idea, and in 2008, the Andrews Women’s Hospital at Baylor Scott & White – Fort Worth opened its doors.
“The idea behind Andrews was simple,” said Dr. Tatum in 2012. “Women have unique health care needs and they should have a comfortable, convenient place to turn that offers comprehensive services for all of their health care needs.”
“Larry was the driving force behind Andrews,” says Mr. Lawley. “He wanted real investment in women’s health care.”
Today, Dr. Tatum still regards Andrews Women’s Hospital as one of his proudest accomplishments, though he is quick to give the credit to his fellow physicians and Baylor Scott & White. His voice swells with pride when he notes that the 100,000th baby was born at Andrews in early 2025 – and that four of his six grandchildren were born there.
Early Adoption of Electronic Health Records
Texas Health Care physicians embraced technology and have continually sought out ways to make patient care more efficient. The group was an early adopter of electronic health records and met Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) criteria for “meaningful use” of EHRs much faster than most other providers.
CMS prioritized and incentivized the use of EHRs to improve efficiency, quality of care and safety, as well as to reduce costs. Texas Health Care prioritized early adoption of EHRs by partnering with NextGen Healthcare, an EHR software provider, to make the transition from paper to electronic records.
Nearly half of Texas Health Care physician members had achieved meaningful use standards by late 2011, the first year in which CMS implemented the program, while only one-third of doctors nationwide could say the same. More than 90% of Texas Health Care physicians were using EHRs in 2011, compared to just 57% of all physicians using an EHR system in that year.
The Privia Partnership
In 2016, Texas Health Care became Privia Medical Group North Texas.
As the health care system increasingly focused on value-based care, there was a clear need and opportunity to expand capacity, especially in primary care. Value-based care is based on the premise that health care providers should be incentivized to keep patients healthy, thereby decreasing patient utilization of health care services and reducing costs. Primary care is the key to keeping people healthy.
“There had been lots of acquisition offers over the years, from both local and national groups” says Mr. Lawley, explaining that the doctors of Texas Health Care never took any interest in those. “One of the true norths of the founders and senior doctors in the group is that they were not going to ‘cash in’ at the expense of their younger colleagues, who could lose the ability to exercise the same kind of autonomy in their practices.”
Privia Health had experience in navigating the complexities of value-based care, as well as considerable actuarial talent. Texas Health Care saw the opportunity, through a joint venture with Privia, to take advantage of an established management services organization while maintaining autonomy and independence.
“Clinical Excellence”
Dr. Bradley – the new group president – joined in 2017, shortly after the new partnership was finalized. “I joined PMGNTX (right after finishing my residency in OBGYN) because I wanted to be part of a physician-led organization that prioritizes both high-quality patient care and physician autonomy,” he recalls. “From the beginning, it was clear that PMGNTX values clinical excellence while also giving its physicians a real voice in shaping how care is delivered.”
“Putting patients first while ensuring that doctors have the leadership, resources, and independence to provide the best care possible sounds like it should be commonplace in healthcare, but it isn’t,” says Dr. Bradley. “That was the major draw for me.”
Privia also brought the capacity to invest in business development and primary care provider recruitment on the eastern side of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, helping fuel the group’s continued growth.
Meanwhile, the value-based care metrics speak for themselves. In 2023, PMGNTX physicians in the group’s accountable care organization (ACO) generated more than $13 million in shared Medicare savings and received a quality score of 90%.
“We have really prioritized data-driven health care,” says Dr. Tilkin. “Now that we are bigger, we are afforded the opportunity to better analyze data for population health. It helps us stay on top of our patient’s health needs; for example, if they are overdue for a colonoscopy screening. We can also analyze data for certain populations, such as a group of diabetic patients, and evaluate which treatments and strategies are proving most effective.”
“We’re now in the process of hiring social workers and other professionals who can dig into the data on social determinants of health,” she adds, referring to the environmental factors that often influence health outcomes. “This will allow us to further assess people’s needs and help them more.”
Dr. Bradley: Optimistic About the Future
Dr. Bradley is confident and optimistic as he considers his new role and what lies ahead for PMGNTX. After all, he’s taken on increased responsibility in the group over the last several years.
“Over the years, I’ve taken on increasing leadership roles within PMGNTX, particularly in areas where we could improve efficiency, patient care, and physician engagement,” explains Dr. Bradley. “As Chief Medical Informatics Officer, my education clinical informatics allowed me to focus on how technology can enhance both physician and patient workflows and outcomes. That role also deepened my engagement with the group’s leadership and strengthened my passion for guiding the organization forward.”
Dr. Bradley maintains a full workload seeing patients. Why agree to also be president of the group? “I took on this challenge because I believe in PMGNTX and the strength of our physician leadership model,” he responds. “With the right strategies, we can continue to improve patient care, optimize our use of technology, and ensure that PMGNTX remains a place where both patients and physicians thrive. It’s an exciting time for the group, and I’m honored and excited to help guide its next phase. I should note that every physician in our group, including myself and all our physician leaders, is in full-time practice, demonstrating our unwavering commitment to our vision.”
PMGNTX Well-Positioned for Opportunities Ahead
As the new leaders of PMGNTX, both Dr. Bradley and Mr. Lawley are bullish on the future.
Dr. Bradley lays out a clear vision for where he wants to lead the organization: “I want PMGNTX to continue leading the way in patient-centered, physician-driven care. Frankly, that means growth,” he stresses. “We’ve grown from 34 providers 30 years ago, to 400 providers in North Texas today. However, we have the model and support to continue to grow.”
Mr. Lawley agrees and sees clear advantages and opportunities for PMGNTX to grow, noting that a large multi-specialty group not aligned with a singular hospital system provides both attractive options for physicians and the opportunity to lower health care costs, which is what employers are looking for.
“If you think about modern health care as a stool, there are basically four legs for the most part,” Mr. Lawley explains. He identifies those as big hospital systems; single-specialty groups, i.e., a group of several dozen radiologists in a group together; retail clinics, like you sometimes see at a drug store or big box store; and vertically integrated corporate-owned groups that do everything from patient visits to filling prescriptions.
Mr. Lawley says meeting with new doctors who are still in their residency programs is a key recruitment opportunity for PMGNTX. “PMGNTX is in a unique place to be a safety valve for doctors and offer lower-cost options for payers,” he adds.
In Dr. Bradley’s estimation, PMGNTX’s continued growth and success also means “staying ahead of changes in healthcare, from advances in medical technology to shifts in patient expectations and care delivery models.”
Of course, even the best marketing strategies and technology won’t help if you don’t have the best people. “I’m incredibly grateful to be part of this organization and to work alongside such talented and dedicated professionals,” says Dr. Bradley. “PMGNTX’s success has always been built on the strength of its people—our providers, our staff, and our leadership—and I’m excited for what we can accomplish together in the years ahead.”
Doctoring Folks & Serving the Community
How has PMGNTX been so successful for so long?
“First and foremost, Larry – he had a great vision,” says Dr. Tilkin. “And, our physician members doing good work, proving over and over that in an independent physician model, our independence allows us to take good care of patients and make good decisions for them. We’ve shown that doctors who want to be independent and have some entrepreneurial tendencies can be successful. We give them that ability to be independent.”
The providers and staff of PMGNTX have a lot to be proud of – but their accomplishments are not confined only to patient visits in their offices or the surgeries they’ve performed, nor is their impact measured solely in how much the group has grown or how many awards and honors they have received. That’s because – usually without fanfare – PMGNTX members make a difference and give back to the greater community every day.
Whether they are raising money for non-profit organizations every holiday season, helping conduct vital medical research, establishing a clinic for the less fortunate, serving as team doctor for local colleges and high schools or leading the local medical society – to mention just a few examples – PMGNTX physicians are serving others in more ways than one. It’s that spirit of service that continues to fuel the group’s drive, passion and success.
Looking to the future, Dr. Bradley says, “Thirty years from now, I hope people say that PMGNTX not only maintained its reputation for excellence but also shaped the future of healthcare in North Texas. I know we can do that by staying true to our values while remaining a trusted partner for patients and physicians.”
This article has been reviewed and approved by a panel of Privia Medical Group North Texas physicians.
This article contains information sourced from:
