MUSC Health, Tribe513 announce affiliation

A new collaboration will provide more health care access for patients in the Upstate as well as more opportunities for training new doctors and other healthcare providers.

MUSC Health and Tribe513, an independent medical practice with 12 practice locations, announced the affiliation this month.

Matt Severance, chief system development and affiliations officer for MUSC Health, said the affiliation arose from MUSC Health’s mission to truly serve the entire state.

“We need to be present and available across the state, either through a direct presence or with partners,” he said.

Tribe513, with locations in Greenville, Spartanburg and the surrounding areas, proved to be a good fit because of the similar vision for patient care.

“What struck us about Tribe513 was their undeniable attention to detail, relationships they’ve built and the culture of care they deliver on in the Upstate. They bring an innovative perspective to the health care experience and a stellar reputation for supporting the needs of their patients and community,” said Patrick J. Cawley, M.D., MUSC Health CEO and vice president for Health Affairs, University.

Leaders at Tribe513 said they were impressed with MUSC Health’s desire to improve health care across the state.

“It's really about doing what's best for the patients across the state,” said Chris Carino, chief operating officer at Tribe513.

Importantly, Tribe513’s medical practices, which encompass expertise in pediatrics, family medicine, internal medicine and OB-GYN, can eventually provide rotations for students across a variety of disciplines as well as residencies for newly graduated doctors.

“The state of South Carolina exports medical school talent,” Severance explained. “More physicians graduate medical school in South Carolina than we have residencies or fellowships and because of that, people leave South Carolina to do residencies and fellowships, and then they never come back.”

David Martin, CEO of Tribe513, said the affiliation can act as a pipeline of talent for Tribe513, which already employs numerous MUSC graduates.

“MUSC has great academic programs across the board - from administrative fellows to physicians, APPs and nurses. If we could work together to improve the pipeline between those programs and our practice, it could be a huge blessing to patients in the Upstate,” he said.

The practice is looking forward to working with trainees, he said.

“It's something that our partners and a lot of our providers want to do more of,” Martin said.

Tribe513 will remain privately owned and will continue its faith-based and people-centered model.

The newly announced clinical affiliation builds upon a previous business collaboration announced in 2020. In that case, MUSC Health and Tribe513 created The Onyx Group to handle medical office administrative functions like human resources and billing.

“We couldn’t be more excited to expand our relationship with MUSC Health: a highly respected, nationally recognized health system,” Martin said. “In MUSC, we’ve found a partner who shares our passion and commitment to loving and serving our teams, providers, patients and communities. Throughout our collaboration, MUSC has continually demonstrated a willingness to focus on solutions that benefit our patients. We are excited for what we can do together.”