In keeping with the demise of the physician practice, Ohio's University Hospitals recently purchased five Akron-area doctor practices, The Akron Beacon Journal reported. Hospital execs at the Cleveland-based health system hope the large addition of primary care physicians to its network will help centralize the focus of University Hospitals on primary care. Primary care facilities under the new collaboration, such as Children's Medical Group, will be allowed to keep their original names and locations but will be part of the University Hospitals network.
Many private physician practices have chosen to collaborate with University Hospitals to help reduce costs and ensure quality care. Trends suggest physicians are seeking to join hospitals to raise their reimbursements, and hospitals in turn want to acquire doctors to increase the volume of patient referrals through their affiliations with physicians, according to the Beacon Journal. Article