A few months ago, I stopped by the office of my late parents' M.D. to say hello to the ladies; they filled me in on the fact that the doc had chosen to forego all the hassles of "private practitioner" (billing, insurance, malpractice, etc., etc.), and that the office gals had to get schooled to do their duties the way the hospital proceeds.
“Your doctor can have his office anywhere..the only difference you might notice, as a patient, is who sends you the bill. “
Not even close. The big cardiologist group around here got bought by one of the local hospitals. There was then a big war between all the hospitals as to whether those new employees of the purchasing hospital could be on emergency duty and/or perform elective procedures in their hospitals.
The upshot was that the cardiologists ended up being able to use the cath labs ONLY in the purchasing hospital, and all the other hospitals had no cardiologists until they hired some new ones from out of state.
And the patients? Why, we all now have to travel an hour if we get a heart attack and want to be treated by our former doctors OR travel to the nearest hospital and get treated by some stranger instead of dying during an hour’s ambulance ride.
It’s going to work like this everywhere, for all doctors bought by a hospital. It’s not just a matter of offices and billing when your doctor gets bought by a particular hospital. He becomes owned by that hospital has to do what he’s told to do. Period.
And how much it is. Around here as soon as the hospital buys up the physician's group they tack on a "facilities fee" to the bill from the doctor. In the cases I have seen that fee exceeds the charge from the doctor in many cases. And we're not talking about seeing a doctor in the hospital, just sitting in the same waiting room the doctor's office always had now costs over $200.
Yet another way for hospitals to capture more revenue and reduce competition.