A recent study by the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) quite endorses this shift to hospital-based employment: 65% of physicians that changed jobs recently have all moved into a hospital employment model. What is more interesting is that the propensity to this model is more common amongst new entrants – almost half of new fellows across all specialties are in favor of hospital-based employment. The shift has really assumed a gigantic proportion. And, when we begin to trace the reasons behind this radical shift, we are invariably led to the following interesting factors:
- The new entrants may not be in a position to match up to the administrative challenges associated with running a medical practice; whereas seasoned practitioners seem to have had enough of their share of administrative challenges
- Many associate hospital employment with a source of secure salary, which might take years in private practice. Therefore, most of the entrants view hospital employment as a safer bet
- Hospitals provide resources such as advanced technology and electronic medical records that small practices might find financially taxing to acquire
- The imminent cuts to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates also happen to be a major discouragement to own private practices as majority of U.S. population is supported by either Medicare or Medicaid
- The monumental shift to ICD-10 and HIPAA 5010 compliant coding, which requires considerable resource allocation on training and system implementation
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