Newly acquired physician practices schedule more patient visits

Patients of doctors in recently acquired medical practices tend to get more care.

Achilles Natsis, a health research actuary at the Society of Actuaries, talked about the impact of physician practice acquisitions on care volume at a recent in-person meeting of the Health Actuarial Task Force of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.

The percentage of U.S. physicians employed by a hospital system or corporate entity increased to 74% in 2022, up from 62% in 2019, according to a slidedeck from Natsis’ presentation included in a task force meeting packet.

Related: Health care M&A: Pharma makes moves, hospitals consolidate, scrutiny grows

Health care deals can reduce some care costs, by reducing providers’ administrative costs, Natsis noted.

But he said research has shown that deals that can lead to a sharp increase in use of physician care, and especially of care by specialists.

When a hospital system makes an acquisition, extra coordination of care can lead to a 23% marketwide increase in specialist visits, Natsis reported.

At recently acquired physician practices studied, the number of visits by new patients increased by 38%, and existing patients had a 9% increase in the odds that visits would be billed as longer visits, he added.

The increased use of care may have the biggest effect on patients covered by employers’ group health plans and other commercial coverage, because acquired physician practices tend to be less likely to accept reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid.

Natsis focused on the effect of the deals on care volume, not on the percentage of additional care that appeared to address unmet care needs.