Costs of Physician-Hospital Integration

Medicine (Baltimore). 2015 Oct;94(42):e1762. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000001762.

Abstract

Given that the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 is expected to generate forces toward physician-hospital integration, this study examined an understudied, albeit important, area of costs incurred in physician-hospital integration. Such costs were analyzed through 24 semi-structured interviews with physicians and hospital administrators in a multiple-case, inductive study. Two extreme types of physician-hospital arrangements were examined: an employed model (ie, integrated salary model, a group of physicians integrated by a hospital system) and a private practice (ie, a physician or group of physicians who are independent of economic or policy control). Interviews noted that integration leads to 3 evident costs, namely, monitoring, coordination, and cooperation costs. Improving our understanding of the kinds of costs that are incurred after physician-hospital integration will help hospitals and physicians to avoid common failures after integration.

MeSH terms

  • Delivery of Health Care, Integrated / economics*
  • Employment / economics*
  • Hospital-Physician Joint Ventures / economics*
  • Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
  • Patient Satisfaction
  • Physician-Patient Relations
  • Physicians / economics*
  • Private Practice / economics
  • United States