Dive Brief:
- The number of hospital-employed primary care physicians is on the rise, increasing from 10% in 2012 to 20% in 2014.
- Primary care physicians who own a single-specialty private practice dropped from 12% to 7% over the same two-year period.
- The survey of 1,527 physicians, run by Jackson Healthcare, was conducted from April 18 to June 5.
Dive Insight:
Quality of life appears to be the major motivating factor in physicians' decision not to operate a private practice. 37% of surveyed physicians said they didn't want to deal with the administrative hassles of owning a practice. 33% said they got into medicine to be a doctor, not a businessperson.
"Overall, the lifestyle that employment offers is the underlying factor driving physician preference," said the survey.
But financial factors also played a part. The Affordable Care Act ushered in some reimbursement cuts, and combined with the high overhead costs of operating a private practice, some physicians found that meant that they lacked the resources to comply with new regulations.