Village Family Physicians partner with Centra

Village Family Physicians, a practice that has operated independently in Moneta for more than three decades, is now affiliated with Centra.

The Bedford County facility on Rucker Road near Smith Mountain Lake has more than 40 employees, said Dr. Janice Luth, a senior partner and physician.

Partnering with Centra helps the practice offer better benefits to workers, as well as handle business management and billing aspects, Luth said. The operation started as a rural health clinic, and moved to several different locations in Moneta as it grew.

The move to join Centra was a hard but necessary decision and a big step for the practice, she said.

“In the long run, we’ll be on more stable financial footing,” said Luth. “We’re really hoping in the long term it will be much easier to recruit new physicians to our area.”

Centra has physician practices in Lynchburg, Brookneal, Gretna, Big Island and Altavista, as well as The Cardiovascular Group of Centra Stroobants Heart Center near the Moneta Public Library.

Skip Leavitt, vice president of practice management for Centra, said as the landscape shifts from populated medical centers in Lynchburg and Roanoke to more rural areas, access to health care becomes a bigger issue.

The lake area has many retirement-age people with more health care needs, he said.

“This was a way of providing services closer to them,” Leavitt said. “We are always open to medical facilities in our region who are interested in affiliation. It makes it easier for us to fulfill our mission to be involved in the community.”

Partnering with the practice seemed a natural, convenient move since Centra has already established a specialty branch in the area, he said. Primary health care is under much financial stress everywhere, he said, and has become more expensive for private practices.

“We’ve made a lot of investments in technologies,” Leavitt said. “We can provide those sorts of things.”