Integration & Physician Issues

With the physician shortage looming nationwide, several hospitals and health systems have opened or have announced plans to open residency programs. Residency programs can help combat the physician shortage in the organizations' area, as residents are likely to set up…

More than three-quarters — 77 percent — of physicians in Massachusetts said they find their careers rewarding, but are less satisfied in specific areas of the job, according to data from the Massachusetts Medical Society's "2013 Physician Workforce Study."

Since shortly before the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act became law, hospital and health system acquisitions of physician practices have picked up, driven by changing reimbursement models, the cost of healthcare reform compliance and the push to align care…

This summer, Jackson, Mich.-based Allegiance Health welcomed resident physicians as part of four new residency programs in emergency medicine, family medicine, general surgery and traditional internship, a program for residents who have not decided on a specialty, according to a…

Internal medicine and family medicine physicians are in short supply in Massachusetts for the eighth year in a row, according to the Massachusetts Medical Society's "2013 Physician Workforce Study."

Physician practices that became patient-centered medical homes reported higher operating costs compared to non-PCMH practices, according to the Medical Group Management Association's "Cost Survey for Primary Care Practices: 2013 Report Based on 2012 Data."

Syracuse, N.Y.-based St. Joseph's Hospital Health Center has acquired Upstate Surgical Group, P.C., an eight-physician general surgery group with locations in Liverpool and Fayetteville, N.Y.

Despite the trend in healthcare of hospitals and health systems acquiring and employing physicians, more than half of physicians — 53.2 percent — were self-employed in 2012, according to a study recently released by the American Medical Association.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., has formed a joint venture with Gentiva Health Services, a national home health and hospice family of companies with 400 nationwide locations, to focus on post-hospital care.

Providers that have designed and implemented bundled payments say persuading physicians to deliver against the bundles, integrating data and running the performance-based model while operating on fee-for-service are some of the top challenges, according to a recent survey from Booz…