We are hearing this all the time. Big corporations are purchasing doctor groups and hospitals and then squeezing harder than ever. Oh, and they are replacing doctors as well. Their goal is money. Plain and simple.
Here is an example from the WSJ. I’ll repost the beginning of the piece to give you a taste:
Since the laser surgery that can fix nearsightedness was approved in the 1990s, one firm, called LasikPlus, has grown into the U.S. industry’s dominant force by using low prices as a draw and vacuuming up rival players.
Along with its growth, LasikPlus has accumulated critics, including some of its own doctors, current and former, who alleged in lawsuits and interviews that they were pressured by corporate management to follow practices that they felt put the company’s profits over patient care.
Some said they were expected to perform so many procedures each day they worried they couldn’t keep up. “It felt like we were in a war zone all the time,” said Therese Alban, who quit LasikPlus two years ago after 15 years there, part of an exodus of about 20% of the chain’s then 40 or so doctors to a rival firm or private practice.
Dr. Alban said she was comfortable operating on 28 patients a day but was pushed to do 40 to 50. She would agree to boost her volume, she said, only to sometimes find an extra four or five patients added to her schedule without her permission. Some days, she operated from early morning until 9 p.m., she said.
More than a dozen former and current LasikPlus doctors and employees echoed such concerns. Some former surgeons said they felt pressure to approve clients for whom the standard vision-correction procedure might not be suitable and said the company discouraged them from recommending surgical alternatives that could be better for the patient.
This is happening with ERs. This is happening with urgent care centers. This is happening with hospital chains. This is happening with primary care.
Most importantly, this is happening with DINOs doing DPC.
Any time there are extra hands in the mix (third parties) you will have the same pressure that these doctors above do. And it only makes healthcare in this country worse.
DO NOT WORK FOR A DPC CORPORATION. BUYER BEWARE!
(Similar post cross-posted on authenticmedicine.com)