Are doctors the latest cash cow for hospitals?
With more and more physicians leaving their practices due to declining reimbursement, they are headed to hospitals for employment. In this article, many prospective problems are being raised: (1) some hospitals are tacking on “facility fees” that hike the cost of a visit by up to 70% (2) sicker patients are being pushed through the same hospitals line of specialists like a gauntlet, earning even more fees for the hospitals. So will corporate healthcare be another glaring failure of Obamacare, where the costs of treatment are higher, not lower? And do patients benefit from this new conflict-of-interest, where corporate physicians refer to other specialists within their hospital, as opposed to specialist they know and trust?
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/28/4717706/doctors-inc-medicine-goes-corporate.html?goback=%2Egde_1817200_member_5829585966943203331#%21