Private practice: dead in the era of health care reform?

At the plenary sessions of HM 2010 one of the members of a panel discussing the implications of Obamacare declared “private practice is dead.” The new emphasis on accountability through shared incentives is driving the trend of individual practices being swallowed up by hospitals. This article from Smart Money examines the many unintended consequences.


Roy Poses, offering skeptical view over at Health Care Renewal, put it bluntly. Accountable care organizations may end up being little more than large corporate entities buying up independent practices:

The name of these supposedly collaborative organizations, which are turning out to simply be hospital systems which have purchased physicians' practices and now employ physicians, is "accountable care organizations," which now appears ironic at least.

The article detailed some of the adverse effects to be expected when accountable care organizations become hospital systems with employed physicians providing patient care.