Dive Brief:
- Despite efforts to move to value-based care, doctors are bringing in more dollars for hospitals than anytime in the recent past, according to a new Merritt Hawkins analysis.
- The report shows all physicians on average generate $1.56 million in direct net inpatient and outpatient income for hospitals, up 8% from $1.44 million in 2013, Forbes reported.
- The findings come as CMS is pushing the healthcare industry to adopt value-based models of care.
Dive Insight:
While the average primary care physician is generating less income for hospitals ($1.4 million in 2016 versus $1.56 million in 2013), that’s offset by specialist doctors, whose contribution to hospital revenues jumped 14% to $1.6 million, compared with $1.42 million three years ago.
Among specialists, orthopedic physicians bring in the most business ($2.75 million each), followed by invasive cardiologists ($2.45 million) and neurosurgeons ($2.44 million).
The analysis was based on a survey of hospital CFOs showing the inpatient and outpatient revenues brought in by affiliated physicians.
“We are doing a better job with value-based care, bundled payment, medical homes or whatever model is in use, but the demand for healthcare services and utilization is up across the country,” Travis Singleton, senior vice president of MerrittHawkins, told Forbes.
Some of the upsurge in hospital revenues is due to fact more Americans have been able to acquire health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
However, the Obama administration has made the shift away from fee-for-service medicine toward value-based care a hallmark of its healthcare reform program. By 2018, half of all Medicare payments are expected to go to value-based care models.
Merritt Hawkins noted this transition is still in its early stages and healthcare organizations have a ways to go to reach that goal.