Evaluating Hospitalist Contracts: 4 Questions

Many health systems and integrated networks contract with physician groups to staff and run their hospitalist programs, but those contracts are subject to many shortcomings, according to a Premier blog post by Bryan Smith, a principle with Premier.

Mr. Smith provided the following four questions for systems and integrated networks to ask when evaluating a hospitalist contract.

1. How does the cost of the hospitalist contract compare to benchmarks? Examine what the system is paying and consider if employment could save on costs.

2. Are physicians and patients satisfied?

3. Does the current contract promote alignment? Look specifically at performance metrics and how they align with how the system and its providers are reimbursed.

4. Is the system helping — or hurting — the hospitalist program? To help the program, systems should create meaningful performance metrics and make them readily available to the hospitalists.

More Articles on Hospitalist Programs:
3 Current Hospitalist Trends
4 Key Ways Hospitalist Groups Can Remain Competitive in a Value-Based World
Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center Adds Hospitalist Program

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