Corporate Medicine
Some industry experts think independent physician practices are about to go the way of the dinosaur and eight track tapes - Joanne Finnegan
image by: Ted Eytan
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Corporate health care is doomed. Here’s why
As health care increasingly propels itself into the world of corporations and big business, it may seem like the practice of medicine has entered an irreversible new era. Gone are the days of good old Dr. Wilson in his solo private practice around the corner, loved and respected by all his patients and the community. Nowadays, it’s all about mega multi-specialty groups, health care mergers and hostile corporate takeovers.
Being someone who’s quite middle-of-the-road when it comes to politics, I’m not anti-big business by any means. Capitalism and globalization have produced countless benefits to humankind. Who can argue against companies like Apple, Microsoft and Google being an…
Resources
The Business of Medicine in the Era of COVID-19
But the push for mergers and remote practice could go much farther, changing in a fundamental way what it means to be a physician and to practice medicine. Hospitals and medical practices have already reduced benefits and decreased hours for clinical staff. Might organizations decide that it is better to hire physicians on an as-needed basis rather than through employment?
The Disappearing Doctor: How Mega-Mergers Are Changing the Business of Medical Care
Is the doctor in? In this new medical age of urgent care centers and retail clinics, that’s not a simple question. Nor does it have a simple answer, as primary care doctors become increasingly scarce.
The Doctor’s Office Becomes an Assembly Line
Consolidation is wiping out private practices and making medical care costlier and worse.
The US is entering a golden age of corporate medicine
The recent slew of mergers and acquisitions is part of a larger corporate transformation that is remaking American healthcare – for the worse
Corporate Takeover of Medicine: Good or Bad?
The bottom line is that corporations often enforce protocols that reduce the quality of your care and increase your risk.
Doctors are fleeing the medical field. Here’s why
It’s no wonder that morbidity and mortality rates are so much higher in this country than comparable developed countries. There is little time for the practice of medicine — there’s only paperwork and red tape. HMOs are ruining medicine.
How U.S. Health Care Became Big Business
Rosenthal's new book, An American Sickness, examines the deeply rooted problems of the existing health-care system and also offers suggestions for a way forward. She notes that under the current system, it's far more lucrative to provide a lifetime of treatments than a cure.
Left Has No Good Answers for U.S. Doctors
When doctors become hired hands of giant corporations, they will worry more about saving dollars than saving lives. Today, the corporate takeover of American medicine is complete.
Novelist Doctor Skewers Corporate Medicine In 'Man's 4th Best Hospital
If The House of God is the great medical novel of the generation of physicians who came before me, perhaps Man's 4th Best Hospital is the book for my cohort. It still has Shem's zany brand of humor, but it also takes a hard look at forces that threaten the integrity of modern health care.
Physicians suffer the personal toll of corporate medicine
I write this as a physician who can see through the façade and racket of what corporate medicine has created. This system is like an abusive parent.
Sunday Dialogue: Medicine as a Business
Readers discuss whether pressure to increase profits has compromised doctors’ ethics and their treatment of patients.
This Is the Reason I'll Never Practice Corporate Medicine
By 2014, even large independent groups were struggling to keep up with the changes in healthcare. The demands of payers and regulators multiplied. Hospitals were increasingly looking for physician groups that could offer vertical integration in the form of multiple integrated service lines. The architects of the ACA and ACOs made accelerated consolidation a goal.
Why big-box retailers want to be one-stop shops for health services
If big-box retailers have their way, customers will increasingly look to the physical store as the one-stop shop for all of life’s essentials, including medical services.
Why insurance companies control your medical care
Insurers, once forbidden from supervising physician work, now act as managers, peering over the shoulders of doctors in a vain effort to counteract payment incentives that have created an oversupply of insured care.
Corporate health care is doomed. Here’s why
As health care increasingly propels itself into the world of corporations and big business, it may seem like the practice of medicine has entered an irreversible new era. Gone are the days of good old Dr. Wilson in his solo private practice around the corner, loved and respected by all his patients and the community. Nowadays, it’s all about mega multi-specialty groups, health care mergers and hostile corporate takeovers.
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