The 2012 Practice Census includes responses from more than 2,500 cardiovascular practices across the 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico.
While the percent of hospital-owned practices has increased, the percent of physician-owned practices has decreased. Sixty percent of practices are currently physician-owned compared to 73 percent in 2007.
Here are some other key data points from the survey:
• An equal percent of practitioners — 35 percent — are employed by hospitals and are physician-owned. In 2007, 59 percent of practitioners were in private practice and 11 percent were employed by hospitals.
• Continued cuts to Medicare physician payment and reimbursement in general are the top two issues keeping more than 70 percent of private practitioners awake at night.
• Medicare payment cuts (56 percent) and reimbursement (49 percent) were also top challenges for hospital-owned practices, followed by billing and coding (41 percent), hospital/practice alignment (40 percent), workflow management (38 percent) and health information technology implementation (36 percent).
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