IPC The Hospitalist Company Completes Acquisition of Hospitalists ...( Establishes Significant Presence ...),Health

Establishes Significant Presence in Southeast Florida Market

NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif., Aug. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IPC The Hospitalist Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: IPCM), a leading national hospitalist physician group practice, announced today that it completed the previously announced acquisition of Hospitalists of America (HOA). The acquisition expands IPC's presence into the major population centers of Southeast Florida with a network of independent physicians, who perform hospitalist services on a part-time basis for HOA's health plan and hospital customers.

Headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida, HOA is one of the largest hospitalist inpatient management companies in the state. HOA currently provides hospitalist care to acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and nursing homes across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Adam Singer, M.D., Chairman and CEO of IPC, said, "With the completion of this acquisition, IPC is establishing a major presence in the Southeast Florida market, which continues to experience significant population growth. HOA has built a strong and stable business through a combination of health plan and hospital contracting. Our infrastructure, especially our IPC-Link(R) technology, will contribute significantly to HOA's ability to deliver excellent quality patient care, while adding value to its existing clients. We see near-term opportunities to leverage HOA's relationships as well as implement our full-time hospitalist model in select Florida facilities."

Isela Sotolongo, President and CEO of HOA, who will serve as Executive Director of the newly-formed IPC Southeast Florida region, commented, "We are excited to join IPC and look forward to pursuing the growth opportunit
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