Physician Practice Transitions to System Ownership Do Not Result in Diminished Practice Responsiveness to Patients

Abstract

Objective: To examine the extent to which physician-to-system ownership transitions are associated with declines in practice-reported patient responsiveness (PRPR).

Data sources: A longitudinal cohort of practices (n = 897) from the National Survey of Large Physician Organizations/National Survey of Small- and Medium-Sized Physician Organizations (2006/08) and the National Survey of All-Size Physician Organizations (2012/13).

Study design: Multivariable regression estimated the effect of ownership on changes in PRPR, controlling for practice size, specialty composition, other practice, and market characteristics.

Data collection/extraction methods: Data were collected from three nationally representative surveys of physician organizations consisting of 40-minute interviews with the medical director, president, or chief executive officer.

Principal findings: Nine percent of organizations transitioned to system ownership. Compared to practices that were continuously physician-owned, practices that switched to system ownership did not have significantly lower PRPR at baseline but continuously system-owned practices did. Transitions to system ownership were associated with increased PRPR compared to continuously physician ownership. Increased practice size and changes in specialty composition, however, were associated with diminished PRPR.

Conclusions: Practices can maintain or improve strategies to address patient concerns when transferring ownership to systems with careful attention to the impact of increased size and changes in specialty composition.

Keywords: Health care systems; independent physicians; ownership; patient complaints; patient responsiveness.

Figure 1

Adjusted PRPR at Baseline (2006/08) and Follow‐up (2012/13), by Ownership Status [Color figure can be viewed at http://wileyonlinelibrary.com]

1. Note. Data are as predicted from the main regression model shown in Table 2 for a practice with baseline PRPR of 4 on a range of 1–5, a constant practice size between 3 and 19 MDs and a constant specialty composition of 33 percent to 99 percent PCP.