Physician business ideas - Practice Size and Physician Employment Trends

According to the Center of Studying Health System Change, a Washington, D.C. think tank, finances and a desire for balanced life styles and regular hours, are driving physicians out of solo practice, into single specialty groups, and into salaried settings. One surprise is that the number of physicians in multispecialty groups, said by some to be the basis for a more rational health system, has dropped from 30.9% to 27.5%, a 3.4% decline.

Here’s the Center’s data showing the trends from 1996-1997 to 2004-2005, the later being the latest data available.

Doctors in Different Practice Group Sizes and and Employment Settings

1-2 physicians, 40.7% to 32.5%, down 8.2%

3-5 physicians, 12.2% to 9.7%, down 3.5%

6-50 physicians, 15.9% to 21.8%, up 5.9%

Single specialty, 13.1% to 17.6%, up 4.5%

Multispecialty, 30.9% to 27.5%, down 3.4%

Other*, 31.2% to 36.0%, up 4.8%

*Other includes physicians employed by medical schools, HMOs, hospitals, community health centers, freestanding clinics and independent contractors.

Does this information surprise you? How do you interpret its meaning? Does it reflect inevitable trends?