Despite the marked decline in interest, experts do not believe private practices will go away.
Here are five things to know about the changing landscape around private medical practices.
1. Twenty-two percent of the medical residents Medscape surveyed expressed interest in owning a stake in a medical practice one day, down from 26 percent in 2015.
2. More than half (52 percent) of self-employed physicians responding to Medscape‘s 2014 Employed Doctors Report indicated they were previously employed by a public hospital or health system, and that number appears to be rising, Medscape notes.
3. Physicians turning to self-employment tend to be younger entrepreneurs who opt for private practice after their previous hospital employers sought to reduce their compensation.
4. Self-employed physicians often adopt new practices, like patient membership, concierge, traveling and house-call practices.
5. They also look to cut their expenses by renting space from other physicians, taking advantage of affordable voiceover internet phone technology and free EHRs, and completing administrative tasks themselves.
Some physicians are “looking to be out from under the thumb of the hospitals,” Mary Pat Whaley, who runs a practice management consulting business called Manage My Practice, told Medscape. “If they’re willing to forego the fancy schmancy, put up with an EHR that doesn’t have all the bells and whistles … they can do it … It’s really a question of, what are your expectations? … Are you looking to make the same salary and benefits you got with the hospital? That’s not likely to happen. [Independent practice] is not for the faint of heart.”
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