1. Healthcare reform threatens autonomy. The new law includes a ban on new physician-owned hospitals and growth of existing hospitals. This provision and other changes like the Independent Payment Advisory Board threaten surgeons’ ability of surgeons to have control over the outcome of their work. This follows in the footsteps of past threats on surgeons’ autonomy such as managed care in the 1990s.
2. Hospital systems buying up practices. By acquiring practices, hospitals seem to be trying to gain control over physicians’ work. Many newly hired physicians are specialists who owe their allegiance to the hospital system. This trend follows the spate of mergers and acquisitions in the late 1990s, when hospital systems consolidated their position. The Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital, opened in 2005, was founded as way for surgeons to resist this trend and maintain control over their work.
3. Attaining higher efficiencies. As reimbursements decline and costs rise, surgeons are under continuing pressure to reach higher efficiency without allowing quality to slip. This can be achieved in the tightly controlled environment of a physician-owned hospital like Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital. Surgeon-owners are mindful of never compromising quality simply to gain efficiency.
Learn more about Indiana Orthopaedic Hospital.
