Those employed by health systems had about 49% lower Medicare billing, worked more hours per week and were in practice for fewer years.
December 9, 2021 / Jeff Lagasse, Associate Editor
Hospital acquisition of independent physician practices is linked to a small drop in physician compensation, with a 0.8% drop in average income, according to new findings published in Health Affairs. This suggests hospitals may not benefit financially when hospitals buy their practices.
From 2014 to 2018, hospital ownership of physician practices increased a full 89%, and the data from this time period began to uncover differences in compensation among various specialties. Non-surgical specialists, for example, saw their average income dip more than $9,650 annually, or 2.4%, while surgical specialists saw their incomes rise a modest 2.1%, or about $10,700 on average.
Primary care physicians also saw an increase, though at 1.2% ($3,179) it was much more modest.
Deeper dives into the numbers uncovered more detrimental effects to physician compensation than just average annual income, however. Compared to independently practicing physicians, for instance, those employed by health systems had about 49% lower annual Medicare billing, worked an average of about three more hours per week and were in practice for fewer years.
Yet many physicians are also seeing incentives to integrate with larger hospitals or health systems, such as overcoming concerns about losing referral privileges, and seeking help with implementing complicated electronic health records.
