Physicians are increasingly parting ways with private practice to join the ranks of health system employees. Hospital and health system employment of physicians grew by 49 percent from 2012 to 2015, according to a September 2016 report by the Physicians Advocacy Institute. Hospital ownership of physician practices has also seen significant growth. As of 2015, hospitals came to own one in four physician practices, a whopping 86 percent growth from 2012. This trend is magnified in the Northeast: by 2015, hospitals employed 42 percent of all physicians and owned 28 percent of all physician practices in this region. Many young physicians will practice their entire professional careers as hospital employees, whether directly or through hospital-owned practices.
Perhaps the two most important documents in the career of a young physician will be his medical degree and employment contract. Yet physicians are often unaware of the inherent traps that pose two significant risks: lack of job security and unwarranted reports to the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). These risks stem from the tension between the physician’s role on the medical staff and as employee (tension between the traditional medical staff model and the emerging employment model).
Medical Staff Bylaws as Contract
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