The disappearing independent doctor
Published: 2009-06-30 15:51:38
Author: Veronica Chufo | WTKR Your NewsChannel 3 | June 15, 2009
Riverside Medical Group added 82 physicians, nurse practitioners and physician's assistants last year.
Sentara Medical Group in the past two years brought on board roughly 100 physicians.
And Bon Secours Medical Group nearly doubled in size when it added 24 physicians over the past year.
Across the nation, large health care groups are acquiring physicians — and the number of independent physicians is shrinking, said Mike Jurgensen, senior vice president of health policy and planning for the Medical Society of Virginia.
For health systems, employing physicians and specialists means having the right people available when they're needed.
For physicians, working for a health system means having someone else take care of the business of health care.
Not everyone agrees what it means for patients.
Running a small office requires taking care of billing, maintaining office staff, keeping up with Occupational Safety and Health Administration and state government regulations, and paying for costly electronic medical records — all on top of caring for patients, Jurgensen said.
"It's getting hard for many physicians to run their small group or solo office," he said.
Part of it has to do with demographics. Women are more likely to join groups or hospitals than men are, and about half the students at Virginia's medical schools are women, Jurgensen said.
And younger doctors find it more appealing than their predecessors to join larger physicians' groups or hospital networks, he said.
"I think some of the appeal is the stability of their work life," Jurgensen said. "Your income is probably a little bit more stable and evened out. They don't have the same entrepreneurial spirit that older physicians have. They don't want to work, necessarily, 100 hours a week running a single-physician practice."
What that means, said one of the independents still standing, is that patients could pay more for care.
Dr. Robert Snyder, who practices with the Orthopaedic and Spine Center in Newport News, said hospitals in some instances can bill at higher amounts than a physician's office. Medical billing is structured that way because hospitals have higher fixed costs, he said.
Full story
Published: 2009-06-30 15:51:38
Author: Veronica Chufo | WTKR Your NewsChannel 3 | June 15, 2009
Riverside Medical Group added 82 physicians, nurse practitioners and physician's assistants last year.
Sentara Medical Group in the past two years brought on board roughly 100 physicians.
And Bon Secours Medical Group nearly doubled in size when it added 24 physicians over the past year.
Across the nation, large health care groups are acquiring physicians — and the number of independent physicians is shrinking, said Mike Jurgensen, senior vice president of health policy and planning for the Medical Society of Virginia.
For health systems, employing physicians and specialists means having the right people available when they're needed.
For physicians, working for a health system means having someone else take care of the business of health care.
Not everyone agrees what it means for patients.
Running a small office requires taking care of billing, maintaining office staff, keeping up with Occupational Safety and Health Administration and state government regulations, and paying for costly electronic medical records — all on top of caring for patients, Jurgensen said.
"It's getting hard for many physicians to run their small group or solo office," he said.
Part of it has to do with demographics. Women are more likely to join groups or hospitals than men are, and about half the students at Virginia's medical schools are women, Jurgensen said.
And younger doctors find it more appealing than their predecessors to join larger physicians' groups or hospital networks, he said.
"I think some of the appeal is the stability of their work life," Jurgensen said. "Your income is probably a little bit more stable and evened out. They don't have the same entrepreneurial spirit that older physicians have. They don't want to work, necessarily, 100 hours a week running a single-physician practice."
What that means, said one of the independents still standing, is that patients could pay more for care.
Dr. Robert Snyder, who practices with the Orthopaedic and Spine Center in Newport News, said hospitals in some instances can bill at higher amounts than a physician's office. Medical billing is structured that way because hospitals have higher fixed costs, he said.
Full story