There has been a lot of talk lately about doctors joining hospitals because they are tired of dealing with their billing headaches in their private practice. What we have found, is that this trend has been exaggerated as discussed in this recent article by MedicalEconomics.com which states,
“Finding a way to track employment and practice ownership among the physician population is tricky. Recent reports claiming that physicians are moving swiftly away from private practices into hospital employment are based on years of inaccurate data, according to a report released by the American Medical Association (AMA).
In its 2012 Physician Practice Benchmark Survey, the AMA reports that 60% of physicians work in physician-owned practices, and about 53% were self-employed. Conversely, only 23% work for practices partially owned by hospitals and nearly 6% worked solely for a hospital.”
What we also see is that doctors don’t want to join hospitals because they then become employees, beholden to their hospital employers regarding hours worked, pay for services, etc. Not only that, but they also lose their patients, who become “property” of the hospitals. So, we have seen a trend going in the other direction… doctors leaving hospitals because of the issues mentioned above.
The better solution for them (and you) is for them to stay private and let someone else handle their billing needs, outside the office. That’s what our licensees do. The goal is to educate doctors and let them know they have other options before going the hospital employee route.