By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
  • Health
    • Mental Health
    Health
    Healthcare organizations are operating on slimmer profit margins than ever. One report in August showed that they are even lower than the beginning of the…
    Show More
    Top News
    HIPPA compliance
    How Medical Office Staff Can Make Your Practice HIPAA Compliant
    October 29, 2021
    Everything you need to know about hyaluronic acid treatment
    Everything you need to know about hyaluronic acid treatment
    February 10, 2022
    Which Mushroom Capsules Are Good for Your Health?
    May 5, 2022
    Latest News
    6 Easy Healthcare Ways to Sit Less and Move More Every Day
    September 10, 2025
    7 Most Common Healthcare Accreditation Programs: Which Should You Use?
    August 20, 2025
    Hospital Pest Control and the Fight Against Superbugs
    August 20, 2025
    Hygiene Beyond The Clinic: Attention To Overlooked Non-Clinical Spaces
    August 13, 2025
  • Policy and Law
    • Global Healthcare
    • Medical Ethics
    Policy and Law
    Get the latest updates about Insurance policies and Laws in the Healthcare industry for different geographical locations.
    Show More
    Top News
    Extending the Frontiers: Working Despite Alzheimer’s and Campus Smoking Bans
    September 1, 2011
    Wall Street Protesters Need a Cause Like Healthcare
    October 6, 2011
    Maps 2.0: Interacting With Our Health Care World
    November 14, 2011
    Latest News
    Healthcare at a Crossroads: Why Leadership Matters More Than Ever
    September 9, 2025
    How Social Security Disability Shapes Access to Care and Everyday Health
    August 22, 2025
    How a DUI Lawyer Can Help When Your Future Health Feels Uncertain
    August 22, 2025
    How One Fall Can Lead to a Long Road of Medical Complications
    August 22, 2025
  • Medical Innovations
  • News
  • Wellness
  • Tech
Search
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Reading: A More Positive Outlook on Provider Consolidation
Share
Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
Health Works CollectiveHealth Works Collective
Font ResizerAa
Search
Follow US
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
© 2023 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
Health Works Collective > Business > Finance > A More Positive Outlook on Provider Consolidation
BusinessFinanceHospital AdministrationNews

A More Positive Outlook on Provider Consolidation

DavidEWilliams
DavidEWilliams
Share
4 Min Read
Image
SHARE

Image

Image

You should read Dr. Scott Gottlieb’s (The Doctor Won’t See You Now. He’s Clocked Out) opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal. He argues that ObamaCare is making independent physician practices obsolete by forcing physicians to work for big hospitals as part of Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), is  imposing high costs for information technology on those who try to remain independent, and that the Administration’s policies will have the ironic consequence of driving up costs since employed physicians are less productive.

There’s a lot of truth in the article. As I have written recently, fees sometimes rise when hospitals buy physician practices and tack on facility fees. And in my prediction for 2013 published by InformationWeek I predicted that physicians will struggle to stay independent.

More Read

patient empowerment
How Health Innovators Can Foster Patient Empowerment
Top Ten HealthCare Quotes of 2012
The 15 Most-Watched Medical-Device Stocks
Beds That People Suffering from Arthritis Should Try
Mayo Clinic Report on Physician Burnout

But although I mainly agree with Gottlieb’s observations, I’m more optimistic than he is, and less eager to point the finger at ObamaCare. In particular:

  • The trend toward hospital employment has been going on for a long while now, as Gottlieb acknowledges. One could say ObamaCare encourages this trend but from my perspective the bigger factors are the desire to join with a bigger entity to negotiate better rates with managed care, a generational shift as younger doctors decide they want balance between life and work (especially women, who now comprise the majority of medical students), and the rising overhead involved in running a practice. Ironically, physicians I’ve spoken with have cited the cost of health insurance for staff as a reason for joining up with the big boys!
  • ObamaCare does not require anyone to be in an ACO and does not require them to be run by hospitals. Physicians could organize their own ACOs and I hope in the future more do, even if that hasn’t been the way things have gone so far
  • Health IT is a drag on small office but also for big hospital based systems. Those inefficiencies will take a few years to work out but I’m optimistic that a new generation of systems will empower the small physician practice, the way technology has made it possible to operate smaller professional services firms in consulting, law and other fields
  • Costs are becoming a bigger and bigger focus, and the country just won’t tolerate health care prices that go up and up. The facility fee issue and Steven Brill’s article in Time on costs are two examples. It’s commercial health plans, not government programs, that have been tolerating higher costs. Buying up physician practices may help hospitals negotiate hard with commercial health plans but Medicare and Medicaid are not going to be impressed. In the long run –maybe 10 years– hospital systems that fail to generate greater efficiency from buying up practices will lose ground to new types of entities, especially those that are virtually integrated through technology. As Gottlieb pointed out, we’ve been through the cycle of physician acquisition by hospitals before, and it was reversed due to lagging productivity
  • ObamaCare represents a great big target to shoot at, and easy to criticize in a vacuum. But we have to compare it with what came before, which was hardly a panacea.
By David E. Williams of the Health Business Group.

image: healthcarebusiness/shutterstock

 

TAGGED:ACOsphysician practice
Share This Article
Facebook Copy Link Print
Share

Stay Connected

1.5kFollowersLike
4.5kFollowersFollow
2.8kFollowersPin
136kSubscribersSubscribe

Latest News

a woman walking on the hallway
6 Easy Healthcare Ways to Sit Less and Move More Every Day
Health
September 9, 2025
Clinical Expertise
Healthcare at a Crossroads: Why Leadership Matters More Than Ever
Global Healthcare
September 9, 2025
travel nurse in north carolina
Balancing Speed and Scope: Choosing the Nursing Degree That Fits Your Goals
Nursing
September 1, 2025
intimacy
How to Keep Intimacy Comfortable as You Age
Relationship and Lifestyle Senior Care
September 1, 2025

You Might also Like

cash flow medical practice
BusinessFinance

An Easy Way to Improve the Cash Flow of a Medical Practice

July 13, 2014
The Modern and Portable Oxygen Concentrators That You Need
Hospital AdministrationTechnology

The Modern and Portable Oxygen Concentrators That You Need

December 4, 2019
medical staff
BusinessGlobal HealthcareHospital AdministrationNewsNursing

The Simple Things Which Help Medical Staff

November 24, 2021

What Healthcare Needs to Know About Google’s Mobile-Friendly Algorithm Update

April 11, 2015
Subscribe
Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!
Follow US
© 2008-2025 HealthWorks Collective. All Rights Reserved.
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
Welcome Back!

Sign in to your account

Username or Email Address
Password

Lost your password?