BANGOR – The Norumbega Medical board of directors voted last week to merge with Eastern Maine Healthcare, a cost-cutting move designed to help the financially strapped primary care physicians group, EMH officials said.

“This was a very constructive and positive process to try and provide a better model for taking care of patients and increasing the availability of care,” said EMH spokeswoman Jill McDonald, adding that Norumbega patients would see little change as a result of the merger that would be completed in the next few months.

“The offices are still the same, the staff is the same, the hours are the same, and the phone numbers are the same,” McDonald said.

In 1994 Norumbega Medical became a subsidiary of EMH. The primary care practice has more than 40 physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners serving five communities throughout Penobscot, Piscataquis and Waldo counties.

The merger essentially makes Norumbega a department within Eastern Maine Medical Center, instead of an independent subsidiary of the hospital’s parent company, Eastern Maine Healthcare, with a separate board of directors and administrative services.

Like many primary care practices, Norumbega has not been profitable in recent years, McDonald said, citing the low Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates received by private practices.

“They’ve been in a negative budget situation for quite a while,” she said.

McDonald, reached Sunday, said the merger help aid Norumbega financially because hospital-based practices receive larger Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.

Under the new arrangement, Norumbega will relinquish its administrative and billing services to EMH, which McDonald said would allow the practice to concentrate on patient care.

Norumbega’s patients, McDonald said, despite the practice’s stronger affiliation with EMH, still would have a choice of hospitals at which to be treated.

Norumbega staff were notified of the change late last week, McDonald said. She said that EMH would seek to transfer many of the approximately 30 administrative and billing positions to the hospital and predicted that only “a handful” might be “eliminated due to these efficiencies.”

The changes will affect six of seven Norumbega practices with the exception of Norumbega Internal Medicine on Husson Avenue. That practice, McDonald said, decided to operate independently although it still will be affiliated with Eastern Maine Healthcare.

Attempts to reach doctors at Norumbega Internal Medicine were unsuccessful Sunday afternoon.

Maine Medical Association spokesman Gordon Smith said Sunday that he has heard of only one similar merger in Maine, and predicted that the arrangement, while it may have some drawbacks, ultimately could improve treatment in eastern Maine.

“Everybody is struggling to find ways to pay the bills, and I know why they’re doing it,” said Smith, adding that the practice’s improved financial situation could attract much-needed primary care doctors to the area.

However, Smith did say that advantage could, in turn, put private practices, still receiving lower reimbursements, at a competitive disadvantage.