That’s never a sustainable business model (via Jay Parkinson), especially in primary care. This will lead to more hospitals buying cash-strapped practices, and using them as “loss leaders” to drive traffic to the hospital.
I don’t see how small, independent practices can survive without hospital help going forward.
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They can drop low paying third party plans, starting with Medicaid and gradually dropping Medicare and the worst of the commercial plans, eventually going to a cash only model if necessary.
They can offer better services than the hospitals are willing to fund at their loss leader clinics. If necessary, they can go as far as the concierge model and take care of the small portion of the population who’s still willing to pay for quality comprehensive care.
The traditional model for internal and family medicine is dying rapidly. These practices will either change radically or go out of business. Most patients have no idea what’s coming.
Um…we are doing just fine. You just need to run a smart business. Most docs aren’t willing to do what is necessary.
It is not magic or rocket science. You just give excellent service to your patients and do it efficiently. We are a long way from dying off.
Primary care will survive but not anywhere and everywhere. You can’t just take whatever payment you are given. You have to deliver value and charge for it.
MGMA is slanted towards the big multispecialty clinics where primary care is usually nothing like usually primary care in the community and often isn’t even expected to break even. Business practices there are usually inefficient and productivity levels modest in primary care.
Thanks to the recent RVU reallocation favoring E&M visits, there's no reason that a well-run primary care practice can't do just fine.
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