While addressing about 150 physicians at a medical society event in Akron, Ohio, Delos "Toby" Cosgrove, MD, president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic, said he expects to see more hospital-employed physicians in the Akron area, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
"I think more and more people, for various reasons, are going to want to go salaried somehow," Dr. Cosgrove said. "I don't have anything against private practice. In fact, I'm delighted to have private practitioners. But clearly the practice across the United States is going more and more to employed physicians."
Last year, Cleveland Clinic acquired minority ownership of Akron General Health System, and the Clinic will have the option later this year to take full ownership of Akron General, according to the report.
Some local physicians at the event were concerned about the effects Cleveland Clinic will have on physician employment, according to the report. Physicians who serve at the main Cleveland Clinic campus are all employed, but Dr. Cosgrove said its community hospitals typically have a 50-50 mix of employed and independent physicians on staff.
Akron hospitals are staffed with about 70 percent independent physicians, according to the report. "Does everybody have to be employed by the Cleveland Clinic? The answer is absolutely not," Dr. Cosgrove said. "We have no intention of making everybody who works in one of our facilities become employed."
Dr. Cosgrove said, however, he thinks the Akron and Northeast Ohio markets in the next five years will reflect what's going on around the country. "I think increasing consolidation. I think you'll see some hospital closures. In fact, I'm almost sure you will. I think you're going to see an increasing number of physicians who are employed."
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