This happened to me a few years ago when one of my doctors left a group -- and Dr. Lundergan is my dad's heart doctor. This conspiracy of silence when a doctor leaves is so disturbing. To me it proves that doctor's egos are bigger than their hearts (the ones who wont give out the new contact info) -- what happened to the hippocratic oath? aren't patients rights more important at this point????
My doctor left her practice as have a few other doctors in that same practice.
From my understanding, when a doctor is in a group practice they have to sign a "no compete" clause/contract. Depending on that clause, they (the doctor) may be out of practice for at least a year (or even longer) or need to go into a different field - ie a family doctor working emergency room. A group practice means the patients of that practice belong to the group not the individual doctor.
This isn't about the doctor's ego. It's about group practice policies. Those policies are what prevent you from finding out what happened to your favorite doctor.
And from what I understand, due to ObamaCare regulations, many small medical group practices being bought out by medical "chains", things are getting much more difficult for individual doctors to provide the level of care they want to and feel comfortable with. There are many doctors who are choosing to leave the medical profession completely. Which is a real shame.