By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
Overton Medical Clinic will be re-opening its doors on August 1, after five months of being closed. The local medical practice was closed suddenly on February 22 of this year with no notice to its patient base or the community. The practice will be opening tomorrow with a new doctor taking appointments to see patients.
In an interview with the Progress, Overton Medical Clinic Administrator, Mirza Nauman, did not comment for the record concerning reasons for the clinic’s sudden closure. Instead, he stated that there had been some issues with the former physician at the practice, Dr. Syed Ahmed.
Nauman stated that it had taken some time to line up a new physician for the practice. This was the main reason that the practice had been shuttered for the five months since, he said.
“We had decided, when we had to close, that if another physician of ours would come up here that we would re-open the practice,” Nauman said. “It just took some time for us to find someone.”
The practice will be re-opening tomorrow under a new name and with a new doctor. The name Overton Medical will be changed to Vista Health.
The new physician at the clinic will be Dr. Cesar Katigbak. Nauman said that Katigbak originally came from the Phillipines. He graduated from the University of Phillipines College of Medicine in 1979. In addition he is a 1987 graduate in Pathology at the University of Illinois in Chicago. He served his residency in Family Practice at the Reading Hospital in Pennsylvania.
Nauman explained that Katigbak has a long history working for the Vista Health group. He has practiced in the group’s Bullhead City, Arizona office for many years, Nauman said.
Starting this week, Katigbak will be seeing patients in Overton for two days a week. On other days of the week, he will be seeing patients at the group’s practice in Pahrump. Nauman said that as the patient load builds up in Overton, Katigbak may be scheduled for more hours at the local clinic.
In the aftermath of last February’s sudden closure, many of the Overton Medical patients requested their medical records and made arrangements to be seen by other physicians. Nauman said that over 400 patients transferred away from the practice at that time. He hopes that the practice will see a return of the local patient load now that a more stable situation exists.
But one of the chief obstacles that stood before the previous practice is still there: that of insurance. Last fall, after the current group took over the Overton Medical practice from previous owner Kay Leavitt, it ran into problems in working with the state’s biggest HMO plans. The chief problem seemed to center around the HMO Health Plan of Nevada (HPN). This plan administers the Senior Dimensions program which had insured a large number of local senior citizens at the practice. But after several months of making applications to HPN, the practice was rejected by HPN and Senior Dimensions.
Part of that may have been due to the doctor on staff at the time. But in any case, the group is currently working again to negotiate an agreement with HPN for both its Overton and Pahrump practices, Nauman said. The group already accepts HPN at its Bullhead City practice.
“We are hoping that showing that we are operating in other areas around the state; like Pahrump and Overton; will give a little better idea that our group is operating at a high level,” Nauman said. “Hopefully that will help our case with the insurance company.”
The practice is scheduled to be open this week. Patients wishing to make appointments can call the office at 397-8400.
