70% hospitals, health systems plan more physician employment

A report this week confirms what many suspected about the hospital-physician employment trend. Seventy percent of national hospitals and health systems plan to employ more physicians in the next one to three years, according to a MedSynergies Inc. and HealthLeaders Media report.

According to the survey, 76 percent of hospitals and health systems are currently using a full employment medical staff model, while 62 percent are using the traditional volunteer medical staff model, a shift that is expected to gain momentum.

Further, more than two-thirds (67 percent) of hospitals and health systems are seeing more requests from independent physician groups about employment, most likely because of uncertainty around healthcare reform, according to the report.

"Reductions in fee schedules for Medicare combined with the ailing economy were already driving physicians to seek safe havens before we embarked on healthcare reform," JR Thomas, president and chief executive officer of MedSynergies, said in a press release. "Now, the Affordable Care Act has increased the complexity of operating a practice, but physicians are weary of the hospital and health system relationship, preferring practice autonomy to hospital governance and local politics."

This report follows another survey last week that indicates 32 percent of first-year residents surveyed in 2011 said they prefer to be employed by a hospital, up from 22 percent in 2008, according to a Merritt Hawkins & Associates survey released last Thursday. One reason may be that physicians feel unprepared to deal with the business side of medicine.

"Hospital and health systems need to provide the services organization to support group-level practice management. This eventually translates to a continuum of care that is patient- and population-centered," Thomas said.

To learn more:
- here's the press release
- check out the full report (.pdf)

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