Well-known Syracuse sports doctor is among 4 jumping to a new medical team

Syracuse, NY — Dr. Bradley Raphael, a sports orthopedist who has cared for many local high school and college athletes, is switching teams.
Raphael is among four bone and joint doctors who are leaving Syracuse Orthopedic Specialists (SOS) for St. Joseph’s Physicians on Dec. 1, Raphael told syracuse.com.
The move will resurrect an orthopedics practice at St. Joe’s, which has not had such specialists in recent years. It’s a significant shift in the lucrative business of orthopedics here and is intended to alleviate some of St. Joe’s financial pressures.
Their new office, St. Joseph’s Health Orthopedics and Spine Care, will operate out of a renovated suite on the first floor of the Northeast Medical Center in Fayetteville.
Also leaving SOS for St. Joe’s with Raphael will be Dr. Kevin Kopko, a joint replacement specialist, and spinal surgeons Dr. Aaron Bianco and Dr. Justin Iorio.
Raphael is well-known in Syracuse University athletics circles. His father, Dr. Irving Raphael, was SU’s team doctor for many years, a position that the younger Raphael held before focusing on the basketball team.
Until the past year or so, the younger Raphael still traveled with the SU men’s hoops squad as team orthopedist, he said. His orthopedic training in 2011 included time in Inglewood, California, with team doctors for the Los Angeles Lakers, Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Dodgers and the University of Southern California.
At St. Joe’s, Raphael will hold the title of sports medicine director. It’s part of a dream he’s had to bring care for athletes under one umbrella, from primary care to cardiac care to orthopedics.
Raphael said he and the others see advantages in joining a larger health network. St. Joe’s is part of the national Catholic health care chain, Trinity Health.
“The care is not going to change,” he said. “The difference is the breadth of support. It opens up (the expertise of) a whole new health system.”
For the doctors, joining St. Joe’s also means less time worrying about running a private practice, like SOS, and more time focusing on medicine and collaboration with others in the Trinity network, Raphael said.
Bringing these four specialists into its fold is also a big win for St. Joe’s. The hospital system has publicized its struggles to create enough revenue to pay for its safety-net care, like its emergency psychiatric program and large Medicaid patient population.
Cardiac and orthopedic care are considered among St. Joe’s core service lines, said Julianne Himes, president of St. Joseph’s Physicians.
Those are also specialties that can bring in high numbers of patients with commercial insurance, which pays significantly more than Medicaid or Medicare.
St. Joe’s only gets roughly 25% of its revenue from commercial insurance, such as employer-sponsored Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield plans. Those can pay 1 1/2 times more than Medicare, which itself pays significantly more than Medicaid.
Raphael’s focus on athletes means he’s paid commercial insurance for roughly 40% of his clients, he said.
So when Raphael and the other doctors approached St. Joe’s about joining forces, the hospital network saw the potential benefits immediately, Himes said.
Not only is athletics a big business in Syracuse, but the aging population will mean more joint and spine business going forward, she said.
St. Joseph’s doctors already make 500 orthopedic referrals each month, she said. Now, some of those procedures will remain in the hospital’s network.
Some of the doctors already do surgeries at St. Joe’s, including Raphael. In fact, the first sports surgery he performed in 2011 was at a St. Joe’s facility, he said.
But 99% of Raphael’s care is provided outside the hospital, he said. Patients who undergo spine surgeries are much more likely to be in-patient at St. Joe’s hospital.
Kafko will lead the joint surgery practice, while Iorio will lead the spinal surgery practice.
Here’s some background on each of the doctors:
Bianco graduated from the Chicago Medical School in 2006 and did his general surgical training at Upstate Medical University. He specializes in spinal surgery, with a particular interest in adult spinal problems, including degenerative trauma, tumors, deformities and infections.
Kopko graduated from the Penn State College of Medicine in 2010 after getting his undergraduate degree from Syracuse University. He specializes in joint replacement surgery, with a focus on hip and knee, fracture care, orthopedic trauma surgery and nonoperative management of osteoarthritis.
Iorio graduated from Upstate Medical University in 2010 and did an orthopedic residency at Temple University. He specializes in spinal surgery, including the management of complicated spinal deformities, degenerative and arthritic conditions, infections, trauma and fractures.
Raphael graduated from Yale University Medical School in 2005 and did a sports medicine fellowship at a clinic in Inglewood, California, near the home of many Los Angeles sports teams. The shoulder, knee, cartilage and orthobiologics surgeon, who specializes in sports medicine, has served as team physician for numerous high school and college teams, including the Syracuse Orange basketball team. He worked with his father, former SU team doctor Irving Raphael, before the elder Raphael retired in 2019.
With the four doctors on board, St. Joe’s expects to open up more orthopedics offices around the region, Himes said.
St. Joe’s orthopedics team will compete for business against their former SOS colleagues and Upstate Orthopedics, among others.