Hospitals Continue to Employ More Docs, Buy Physician Practices

Between 2012 and 2018, the proportion of U.S. physicians employed by hospitals and health systems rose from 25 percent to 44 percent.

And between 2016 and 2018, 14,000 physicians left private practice behind to work for hospitals and health systems while those hospitals and health systems purchased 8000 physician practices.

One reason health systems employ physicians and purchase physician practices is enhanced reimbursement:  Medicare pays more for services provided in hospital outpatient settings than in private physician offices, although Medicare has been taking steps in recent years to reduce or end this practice through the introduction of site-neutral Medicare outpatient payments.

Learn more about the continued movement toward hospital-employed physicians in the Healthcare Dive article “Hospitals now employ more than 40% of physicians, analysis finds.”