June 15, 2011 by matray

side note: Here is the No. 1 quandary looming for the medical professional liability insurance industry. If physicians continue the growing trend towards hospital emplyment rather than solo or group practice, who will the traditional MPLI companies have left as customers? I’m amazed at just how quickly physician employment has swung from small independent practices to hospital-based employment. I’ve heard about it anecdotally from medical societies and malpractice carriers who are seeing their constituents shift, and have certainly observed the shift from individual physicians, but I’m still surprised how fast it’s occurring. A new report from recruiter Merritt Hawkins tells the clearest story I’ve seen: In the last 12 months, 56% of physician search assignments have been for hospital jobs, whereas 5 years ago it was just 23% Just 2% of assignments were for independent, solo practice docs compared with 17% 5 years ago Doctors are becoming more like regular wage earners, albeit high paid ones. There are some strong drivers of this trend including the need to support health information technology, comply with regulations and deal with health plans. There’s also a desire on the part of a younger, increasingly female physician workforce to have a better balance between work and home life. If anything the forces pulling physicians into hospital employment will strengthen in the near term with the arrival of Accountable Care Organizations and other forms of deep integration. Yet when a pendulum swings it tends to swing too far. Especially considering how quickly things have moved, I do expect that there will be some backlash to the rush into employment. It’s really not all that much fun having a boss, especially when that boss is a big, bureaucratic hospital with other things on its priority list besides MD satisfaction and career development. Patients may not like it so much either. I know I’d rather see a physician who’s not too tightly tied to a hospital. continue reading