Health systems reap big rewards by acquiring practices, but physicians aren’t sharing in those benefits, study finds

Fierce Healthcare December 14, 2021
Susan Kreimer

While the increasing acquisition of physician practices is profitable for hospitals and health systems, a new study indicates that doctors may not derive higher earnings from relinquishing ownership.

The study, published in the December issue of Health Affairs, combined national survey data on physician practice ownership with information on their income to explore whether hospital or health system integration correlated with income differences from 2014 to 2018.

During this time, hospital and health system ownership of physician practices rose by 89.2%, from 24.1% to 45.6% of all doctors in the study’s sample. Among physician practices overall, vertical integration with hospitals or health systems corresponded to 0.8% lower income on average compared with independent physicians after adjusting for multiple variables.

“Vertical...

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