The Big Staffing Question: Private or Corporate

By Dea Robinson posted 02-04-2009 00:27

Like

A few weeks ago I attended the Assemblies and Societies Conference in Denver (I know, long commute to this one-cry me a river) and one of the leading topics was practices being bought by hospitals and how does MGMA best react to this phenomenon. I kept thinking about this topic more than the others-because it make me go hmmm. Practices and physicians being bought and hired by hospitals. Hmmm. Why? Why would the hospitals want to go down this road? And what makes a hospital more knowledgeable in running a hospitalist practice (or any other specialty) than, uh, me?

I suppose if we picked it apart like a good pulled pork sandwich, we would see all of the elements of the CMPE exam, but there is more to it than that. Are these practices being run poorly, or does it give the hospitals the control in staffing they so desparately need right to support accreditation, etc.?

I know that there are physicians that would rather have a "turn-key" operation where they show up for work and do not want to take part in the obligation of running a business or dealing with a grumpy administrator who just doesn't get around to taking her vacation more regularly (not, me of course) so that she is refreshed instead of heading to the roof and contemplating the "jump". Is this is the majority of physicians and how sweet is the deal? From a hospitalist staffing perspective who would set the rules of the game in terms of hand offs and communication. You see, I see many cons to hospital-owned physicians and believe that the check and balance between the hospital and physician is a necessary one. Perhaps I am in the minority.

So, to answer MGMA's query to how best to respond to this hospital-owned phenomena just do like the rest of us medical administrative exec's...no business plans past 18 months!

2 comments

78 views

Permalink

https://community.mgma.com/blogs/dea-robinson/2009/02/04/the-big-staffing-question-private-or-corporate

Comments

John White

03-19-2009 13:15

I confess, this is the first I've read that hospitals would buy a physician practice to encourage better billing. Most of the literature I've read suggests hospitals engage in this practice in the hopes the practice will act as a feeder into their healthcare system. In part, they hope, by owning the practice, they can more effectively advertise services available at their local hospital to individual physicians, and thereby, their patients.
My understanding is outcomes are mixed, at best, with particular difficulty in the area of physician compensation. Frankly, physicians don't work as hard as 'employees' than when they work as 'entrepreneurs'.

Jocelyn Pemberton

02-04-2009 13:49

I would also add that physicians (and administrators - grumble.. grumble) should see the writing on the wall. Not to defend the big bad hospital, but they have been trying to motivate us (hospitalists especially) toward their goals and quality measurements (hence reimbursement and viability) for years now. If physicians aren't willing to change to accommodate, hospitals aren't left with much choice but to own the practice. Just look at the difference in hospital reimbursement when attendings document correctly! 10s of thousands per patient in some cases! But to get a private physician to use "renal failure" instead of "renal insufficiency" is like moving a donkey (get the reference ;) Not so if the physician is a mere employee.
Off my soapbox now.
Jocelyn

Blogs