LOVELAND - Loveland Surgical Associates will join Banner Medical Group, effective Sept. 1.

The 39-year-old practice is comprised of four surgeons: Jerome Collins, Bradford Keeler, Thomas Blomquist and Karin Schmidova.

Patients will still be able to see the doctors at the practice's existing location. Banner Medical Group is an employed physician group with physicians and other providers in six  states.

Physician groups have become a health care trend in recent years, with both Banner Health and Poudre Valley Health System, now part of University of Colorado Health, creating affiliated practices.

Affiliating with one of the groups allows physicians to focus more on care and less on administrative duties.