MBA 5201

“The proportion of physicians in solo and two-physician practices decreased significantly from 40.7 percent to 32.5 percent between 1996-97 and 2004-05, according to a national study from the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). At the same time, the proportion of physicians with an ownership stake in their practice declined from 61.6 percent to 54.4 percent as more physicians opted for employment. Both of these trends away from solo and two-physician practices and toward employment were more pronounced for specialists and for older physicians” (Center for Studying Health System Change, 2007). In this case study I will examine these trends as described in the assigned article as well as in other recent literature. The study suggests that although many would have predicted that physicians would group together in multispecialty practices for convenience, the trend does not suggest this. In fact the number of providers practicing in multispecialty groups actually decreased several percent from the mid 1990’s through the mid 2000’s. The study also makes it apparent that physicians are less likely to practice independently or even in small practices with 2 or 3 docs. In addition they are less likely to own or possess ownership in their practices. Instead physicians are more likely to join mid-sized practices with 6-50 doctors of like specialty, and are less likely to own financial interest in the practice. One of the reasons for this trend could be that reimbursement has become very complicated so physicians must group together in order to afford coders and office staff that can sift through the various rules and regulations posed by both government and private payers. Larger physician groups can more easily afford dedicated resources to oversee contract management and staff that can optimize reimbursement from payers (Saunders, 2014).