Frustrated. Trapped. Duped, maybe.
According to 2023 reports, by 2021, nearly 70% of physicians were employed by hospitals or investor-owned corporations.
And now, they complain about the loss of autonomy, the imposition of workplace rules, less income potential, and (no) surprise, less job security.
According to a University of Chicago survey, approximately 61% say they have from no to only moderate freedom to make referrals outside of their employer’s system. Close to 50% say that they change their patients’ treatment to reduce costs, either to comply with their employer’s policies or because of financial incentives.
Stripped of their own patient relationships, of in-bound referral relationships, and of any independent business process, many believe that they’re trapped. They’ve checked out of their future, and fear that they can never leave.
From experience working with both office-based and hospital-based specialists in these situations, I can tell you that there is a functional exit door and that many have found it.
Other hospital/corporate-employed physicians are likely to be pushed out of the exit door as a result of the increasing number of healthcare entity failures and bankruptcies, such as the 2023 closure of American Physician Partners, which employed more than 2,500 physicians and other medical professionals.
Whether the exit is voluntary or involuntary, unhappily employed physicians and those that are laid off, are either going to leave practice, decide to take an entrepreneurial medical practice route, or, as good news for physician-owned medical groups, seek a medical practice future with an organization that views them as professionals, not as cogs in a system.
