“To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of the death of private practice medicine have been greatly exaggerated,” said AMA President Ardis Dee Hoven, M.D., in a Sept. 17 AMA press release.
 
The new study, based on on-line surveys completed by 3,466 physicians in late 2012, showed that 60% of physicians were in physician-owned practices. About 5.6% were directly employed by a hospital, and more than half of physicians, 53.2%, were self-employed in 2012, according to the study.
 
As demands for care coordination and health information technology have increased, so too have the number of physicians seeking employment at hospitals in the last five years. However, this latest study shows a slowdown in that shift and draws attention to the fact that needed innovations for these demands should recognize practices of all sizes and types to better enable physicians to participate in the move toward a more patient-centered system, noted the AMA.
 
To keep up with the growing demands on medical practices, turn to Part B News.