A recent press release confirms what we have long suspected.
According to JR Thomas, president and chief executive officer of MedSynergies in the press release:
“Reductions in fee schedules for Medicare combined with the ailing economy were already driving physicians to seek safe havens before we embarked on healthcare reform. Now the Affordable Care Act has increased the complexity of operating a practice, but physicians are weary of the hospital and health system relationship, preferring practice autonomy to hospital governance and local politics.” “Hospital and health systems need to provide the services organization to support group-level practice management. This eventually translates to a continuum of care that is patient and population centered”.
According to a survey by Merritt Hawkins & Associates, almost one third of first-year residents surveyed noted that they prefer to be employed by a hospital (which is up from one fifth in 2008). While Merritt Hawkins surmises that the reason is because doctors feel that they are not prepared or knowledgeable when dealing with the business of medicine.
While many physicians are not happy to deal with taking orders or hospital regulations and politics, they are quite happy to leave the financial pressures of maintaining a private practice and going to work each day doing what they love most- practicing medicine