Updates: Anchor Medical abrupt closure leaves 25,000 looking for primary care, pediatricians

Our first story, published two weeks ago, about the impending closure of Anchor Medical, has been updated, here.

If you are an Anchor Medical patient and HAVE obtained a new doctor, please send us an email – we’d like to hear – anonymously – of your experience. [email protected]

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On Friday, April 4th the word started to spread about the closure of Anchor Medical with 3 practices in 3 different cities. By this time patients should have received the letter giving them details of the closure. Anchor will be closing with a final date of June 30th.

On Monday, responses began to come in – and we reached out to others, including a “new” physician practice, Thundermist who are welcoming new patients, Brown Health, the RI Department of Health and the Hospital Association of Rhode Island.

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Still No Response from Congressional representatives

We reached out to all four congressional members – Represenatives Magaziner and Amo and Senators Reed and Whitehouse. We asked for their statement and if there were efforts underway for a plan to help the 25,000 Rhode Islanders about to be left without a doctor.

Only Rep. Magaziner responded with a suggestion that we speak to RI EOHHS. The four are continuing to hold meetings about social security and Medicare, but have not addressed the primary care crisis.

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From the Governor’s Office:

We requested what the Governor was doing on the Anchor Medical situation and received this statement before our first story:

“Under the Governor’s direction, both EOHHS and RIDOH are engaged in talks with other health care entities who may be interested in taking on all or part of Anchor Medical’s primary care practice. This would be the best solution as far as minimizing service disruption to Anchor Medical’s current patients.

On a national level, rising health care costs and a shortage of primary care physicians are plaguing America’s health care system right now, and Rhode Island is among the many states feeling those effects. As part of the administration’s strategy to address this issue in the long term, the governor recommended budgets in both FY2025 and FY2026 that included primary care provider rates as part of the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner’s biennial review. The administration is hopeful that this request will be included in the final FY2026 budget.

Additionally, over the past several year, the McKee Administration has provided millions of dollars to our state’s health care infrastructure and workforce, including approximately $175 million in strategically deployed SFRF funding to hospitals, nursing facilities, and provider stabilization.”

UPDATED: Two weeks later we asked the Governor’s office again if they are providing leadershipp in a more direct way – and this statement was sent:

“The Governor has tasked EOHHS Secretary Charest to work with RIDOH Director Dr. Larkin to engage health care organizations that may be able to take on part of Anchor Medical’s practice, which could include providers as well as patients. These discussions remain active. 

As this outreach continues, patients are encouraged to review the information that RIDOH has posted online. This includes instructions for accessing medical records, medication refills, and searching for a new primary care provider. The RIDOH page links to Anchor Medical’s listing of roughly 20 practices that are accepting new patients. RIDOH will be working closely with Anchor to keep this list up to date.”

In an interview with 12 News, “…Gov. Dan McKee said his office learned of Anchor’s closure just days before it became public. We’re connecting the [Anchor] leadership in with other providers in the state to see whether we can absorb some of the physicians and also the patient load,” McKee said.

“We would have been proactively working on a strategy, if we got what Thundermist gave us: an update months in advance that they had an issue,” said McKee, referring to the Woonsocket-based provider that warned it was at risk of closure last fall due to a financial issue. Thundermist later secured $9.5 million from insurers, hospitals and state and federal taxpayers, allowing the provider to remain open.

“We were able to come in and actually help them sustain themselves,” McKee said of Thundermist. “We didn’t get that opportunity here, so now we’re playing a little catch-up.”

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From Anchor Medical Associates

Letter to patients:

Dear Patient:

We are deeply saddened to announce the closing of Anchor Medical Associates, effective June 30, 2025.

For over 25 years, Anchor has provided high-quality, patient-centered medical care to our patients and families. The decision to close our practices has been extremely difficult, particularly against the backdrop of a shortage of primary care physicians across the state. While our commitment to our patients remains strong, we just cannot continue to operate in this increasingly challenging healthcare environment. We have been unable to hire replacements for our physicians who have retired over the course of the last decade—while costs continue to rise, reimbursement rates make it extremely difficult to attract new physicians to our state.

Effective April 30, 2025, we will first be closing our Warwick Pediatric/Adult Medicine office located at 400 Bald Hill Road in Warwick. Warwick providers will resume patient care services in our Lincoln office until June 30, 2025.

Effective June 30, 2025, we will close our last two offices: our adult medicine office located at 180 Corliss Street, Providence, and our pediatric and adult medicine offices located at 1 Commerce Street in Lincoln, RI.

Our primary focus remains meeting the health care needs of our patients in the best and safest way possible during these last months, and we are here to help make this as smooth a transition as possible.

Patients are encouraged to begin the search now for a new primary care provider and request copies of their medical records over the next 90 days before we close. Medical records will continue to be available after the June 30, 2025 closure date. A Medical Record Release form can be found on the practice website here.

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Anchor Medical suggested list of practices taking new patients:

Adult Patients:

• Greenwich Bay Medicine in East Greenwich – Adult Medicine patients (401) 398-0288
• Wellnorth Medical – Adult Medicine patients (401) 438-1010
• Oak Street Health – Adult Medicare patients (877) 374-3160 or (888) 898-6762

Pediatric Patients:

• Partners In Pediatrics in Providence (401) 437-6777

Patients of all ages:

• North Providence Primary Care / Center of New England Primary Care (401) 351-1900
• Blackstone Valley Medicine in Lincoln – Patients aged 5 and older (401) 638-6374
• WellOne Primary and Dental Care
  • Pascoag: (401) 567-0800 | Scituate: (401) 647-6262 | North Kingstown: (401) 295-9706 | Foster: (401) 647-3702
• Providence Community Health Centers – Pediatric, Adult and Complex special needs pediatric patients (401) 444-0404

Specialty Care:

• Nicholas Duhamel, MSW, LICSW for Behavioral/Mental Heathcare healandflourishtherapy.com (401) 203-4963

Medical staff noted on the Anchor Medical website:

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We reached out to Brown University Health:

Brown Health says they are taking no new patients at this time. In addition, callers are told there are now 10,000 people on their wait list and even once accepted it could be 2-3 years to be seen.

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“Brown University Health has had a longstanding partnership with Anchor Medical Associates, and we understand how critical the shortage of primary care providers is to the quality of care for all Rhode Islanders and the significant hardship this news is causing many families.  Rhode Island’s healthcare system is in crisis due to low reimbursement rates, leading to provider shortages, clinician burnout, and financial instability among hospitals and physician groups. Without addressing these funding challenges, we anticipate further reductions in services and patient access. To strengthen healthcare delivery, we are exploring multiple avenues to expand our network of primary care providers, including strategic partnerships and organizational growth.” – Brown University Health Spokesperson

Background for Anchor Medical staff, docs

While Anchor Medical Associates is an independent entity, their administrative employees are employed by Brown University Health through a contractual agreement.  The physicians and other medical staff are not Brown Health employees.

We are working with the impacted Brown Health administrative employees to find positions for them in our system.  The Anchor medical staff are also encouraged to apply for open positions at Brown Health. 

Jessica A. Wharton, Senior Public Relations Officer | The Miriam Hospital, Brown University Health

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Primary Care for All Americans – Rhode Island state workgroup

There are now about 200 Rhode Islanders working behind the scenes and with communities, legislators, and policy folks, to fix the primary care mess and to make sure “everyone, in every Rhode Island neighbor and community, has a great primary care clinician and a great primary care practice”. 

Scituate RI, where their flagship local workgroup is located, is the only community in the US where everyone is assured access to primary medical and dental care. It got that way through the work of a small group of dedicated volunteers, and a big vision — primary care for all. 

They say, “Anchor failed because of decades of neglect. Join us as we fix the problem, neighborhood by neighborhood and community by community.”

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Thundermist steps up to help

Thundermist Health Center also has capacity and can be a resource for Anchor patients who need to transition their care. In particular, we have pediatrics availability at all three of our medical locations: West Warwick, Woonsocket, and South County (Wakefield). Here is the breakdown of when we can see new patients both adult and pediatric (18 and under):

They are working on updating their website to include up to date info and talking with our leadership about other ways to get the word out. While there is nothing known or confirmed about medical providers from Anchor coming to Thundermist, they may have some capacity for them, especially in their West Warwick space.

They take almost all insurance (commercial/private and Medicaid). And, they have a patient portal.

Mikel Wadewitz, Senior Director of Marketing & Communications

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Oak Street Primary Care

Oak Street is one group most recommended for people over 65 – however – a cursory search met with pages of notifications like this:

We suggest you keep looking to see if any open up.

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Call your health insurer:

This advice has been common, and they will help you – but as we’ve heard, people are grabbing the first availability, out of desperation – not the way one wishes to pick their primary medical physician. While you may be on hold for awhile, you can usually reach someone – or get what you need from the website, for those tech savvy to do so.

Many insurance companies allow you to go into Massachusetts and we’re also hearing that people are beginning to do this – or look at Connecticut if they live in the southern part of the state.

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Health care crisis wipes out primary care for tens of thousands Rhode Islanders

HARI took a more political bent to explaining what had happened with Anchor and what needs to happen this year and in the future with healthcare in Rhode Island.

Hospital Association Pushes for Legislative Action as Reimbursement Crisis Worsens

The Hospital Association of Rhode Island (HARI) warns of increasing pressure on the state’s health care system and urges the General Assembly to take immediate action. With Anchor Medical Associates closing due to low reimbursement rates causing financial instability, over 25,000 patients will no longer have a primary care doctor at a time when there is already a shortage across the state. 

“These unfortunate events highlight how Rhode Island’s health care crisis is very real, and getting worse,” said Howard Dulude, Interim President of HARI. “In order to get our friends and neighbors the health care they need, we urge the General Assembly to take action on legislation supported by hospitals and physicians that directly addresses the policy failings that set this crisis in motion.”

Rhode Island’s doctors and health care providers are reimbursed at a rate that no longer covers the actual cost of care. Anchor Medical’s closing is the result of rising costs, low reimbursement rates, doctors retiring, and the inability to attract new physicians to our state. 

Legislation supported by HARI and the medical community aims to strengthen the state’s health care system, improve patient access to care and ensure long-term financial sustainability for providers.

• Family Health Care Act: Increases Medicaid reimbursement rates for physicians and advanced practice providers in the community. Senate Bill 0873 sponsored by Senator Jacob Bissaillon and House Bill 5790 sponsored by Representative Thomas Noret. 

• Medicaid Reinvestment Act: Improves the hospital payment structure by increasing Medicaid payments for hospitals at no cost to taxpayers by leveraging the hospital provider tax. Senate Bill 848 sponsored by Senator David P. Tikoian and House Bill 6095 sponsored by Representative David Bennett. 

• Health Insurance Fairness Act: Makes Rhode Island’s commercial reimbursement more competitive with Massachusetts and Connecticut. Senate Bill 0681 sponsored by Senator V. Susan Sosnowski and House Bill 5832 sponsored by Representative Teresa Tanzi.  

These solutions to the health care crisis will attract and retain doctors, nurses, and specialists to ensure they are available to provide timely care; result in shorter wait times for ER visits and specialist appointments; ensure Rhode Islanders have access to a stable and fully functioning healthcare system across all levels of care; and, attract and retain skilled professionals instead of pushing them out. 

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Greenwich Bay Medicine & Blackstone Valley Medicine

Noted on the Anchor website was a practice that could also accept new patients, though they do not offer pediatrics.

Buried in the Anchor announcement was notice that these two practices, one in Lincoln and one in East Greenwich, were welcoming new patients coming from Anchor Medical. No website was up, only two Facebook pages. But, by Monday morning, the website was up and running.

There are 11 physicians associated with the two practices (4 MDs, 1 DO, 2 PA-C, 3 FNP). At present they do not appear to take pediatric patients.

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The RI Department of Health

RIDOH had suggestions on their site on how to obtain medical records if you are an existing Anchor patient – and how to begin the search for a new physician for you and your family.

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RI Attorney General Peter Neronha has said there were things that could have been done “if leadership at the top were there – which it isn’t” – assuming he was mentioning Gov. McKee.

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Our story, as Breaking News, on Saturday morning:

Anchor Medical in RI to close. Impacting tens of thousands adults, children, for primary care