Beware unintended consequences of hospital-doc integration

by Kent Bottles The conventional wisdom seems to be playing out all over the United States. Because of healthcare reform and the transition away from fee-for-service payment, hospitals are buying up physician practices. Many physicians in private practice have decided they do not have the necessary capital for purchasing electronic medical records or the time to understand all the new laws and regulations. Many see consolidation of the healthcare industry as a foregone conclusion to the adoption of the Affordable Care Act. Although the increasing integration of hospitals and physicians makes perfect sense to me, I am reminded that the real world is often messy and does not always do what theory says it will do. Anyone who is affected by the trend toward industry integration should read the classic book "Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences," by Edward Tenner. The unintended consequences of physician-hospital integration are starting to become apparent in different parts of the United States. Integration in theory is supposed to help decrease per-capita costs and increase quality by taking advantage of economies of scale and reducing overlapping services in the community served by the hospitals and physicians. In reality, claims H. Gilbert Welch in a New York Times op-ed, integration is leading to increased costs. For Welch, one driving force behind integration is hospitals that buy up practices can charge Medicare a facil...
Source: hospital impact - Category: Health Managers Authors: Source Type: blogs