Consider These Questions About Mergers Before You Jump
Orthopaedics Today – January 2019
by Wathen Strong
The shift toward hospital or health system ownership of physician group practice has been on a steady pace of growth for several decades. From July 2012 to July 2016, the number of physician practices employed by hospitals increased an astounding 100% according to data from Physicians Advocacy Institute.
Although we may be seeing a leveling-off of hospital system practice mergers, mergers have altered the landscape of physician practice to the point that no longer are the majority of physician practices privately owned. If you have been contacted by a local hospital system about a possible merger, are you and your organization ready to be part of a larger, consolidated structure or are there other options that might allow your practice to thrive and to simultaneously allow your relationship with the hospital health system to strengthen?