Thursday, May 12, 2022

Is The End Of Private Medical Practice Nigh?

Something to be concerned about! Is this a healthy trend when more and more self employed medical professionals like doctors become employees?

One obvious effect of this trend is that in order to pay for all these employed medical professionals more and more otherwise healthy individuals have to be declared sick and in need of lots of long-term treatment! A vicious cycle!

"Nearly three in four doctors now work for a hospital, health system, or corporate entity, according to new data from Avalere. That’s a 7% increase from a year ago—and an almost 20% jump since 2019.
In other words, the independent physician is becoming an endangered species. ...
The pandemic accelerated the longstanding trend of greater consolidation in medicine. Large health systems acquired more than 36,000 physician practices between January 1, 2019—the year before the pandemic began—and January 1, 2022. That represents a 38% increase in the share of practices that are corporate-owned. ...
Roughly 83,000 physicians have become employees of hospitals or other corporate entities since the start of the pandemic, according to Avalere. ...
As an employee of a larger system, doctors don’t have to deal with the administrative headaches of billing and paperwork that accompany private practice. They’re also guaranteed a set salary and working hours—unlike an independent physician, whose income and hours often depend on the volume of care he or she delivers and the overhead expenses the practice accrues. ...
There’s no evidence that higher prices lead to better care for patients. In fact, practices owned by a hospital report higher preventable hospital admission and readmission rates among their patients than small, independent practices, according to a report published by the Annals of Family Medicine. ..."

Is The End Of Private Practice Nigh? - Pacific Research Institute

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