Dive Brief:
- Nearly half of physicians employed by corporations feel pressured to prioritize patient volume over care quality, according to a new survey of 1,000 doctors from a physician advocacy group.
- Additionally, 63% of physicians say their employers have policies that make it difficult to refer patients outside their network, and 59% say they face pressure to keep patients within their health system, according to the survey published by healthcare policy consulting firm Healthsperien, commissioned by the Physicians Advocacy Institute.
- The survey comes as more physicians are employed by corporations: More than 80% of doctors were employed by hospitals, health insurance companies, and other businesses last year, compared with 25% in 2012, according to research from the group.
Dive Insight:
As more physicians are employed by corporations, they’re facing roadblocks that conflict with their duty to provide care, the report says.
Doctors say the top factors limiting their ability to provide quality care are insufficient staffing, administrative burdens, pressure to prioritize financial metrics over clinical care and inadequate time with patients as the top factors limiting their ability to provide quality care.
Just 28% of doctors surveyed have ever practiced in a physician-owned setting, and most doctors under the age of 40 have only ever known corporate ownership. More than 6 in 10 physician practices are now corporately owned, according to the report, and private equity firms, insurers and other non-hospital entities own more physician practices than hospitals and health systems.
Burnout is also increasing, according to the report, with nearly 90% of physicians saying they had some level of burnout. That’s a much higher figure than other recent data would suggest — the American Medical Association surveyed thousands of physicians earlier this year and found that 41.9% experienced a burnout symptom in 2025, down from 48.2% in 2023 and still less than the record high rates recorded during the coronavirus pandemic.
Doctor lobbies, like the American Medical Association, and physician advocacy groups say that corporate involvement in healthcare can be detrimental to care, erode patient-provider relationships and create conflicts of interest. The Physician Advocacy Institute itself has called for lifting restrictions on physician-owned hospitals.
However, hospital lobbies like the American Hospital Association contend that the shift away from independent practices toward corporate employment does not reflect overly-aggressive consolidation, but physicians’ desire for the support and infrastructure that a bigger company can provide.
Lawmakers have waded into the issue, introducing a bill last year that would lift restrictions on building physician-owned hospitals. Still, the bill has not advanced past committee referrals.
