An interesting study recently came out revealing that physician income declines when hospitals acquire private practices.
Unfortunately, the bad news doesn’t stop just there. The study found that physicians employed by healthcare systems also:
- Experienced a lower Medicare billing rate of about 49%.
- Worked more hours every week.
- Stayed in practice for fewer years.
Today, around 70% of all physicians in the United States are employed by healthcare systems or other corporate entities. Over the next several years, the expectation is that more of the 30% of physicians who remain in private practice will move towards hospital or corporate employment.
Regardless of which side you find yourself on, private practice, or employed by a healthcare system, here are three takeaways that I think might be helpful to you individually.
1. The Time to Build Your Personal Brand Is Now
The decline in income for physicians working in healthcare systems is not surprising. In fact, many of my private clients have come to me for that exact reason. Because health systems really can’t promote one employed doctor over another, there is just not a way for them to represent you well.
By building your own personal brand online, you can start to take control of your patient flow. And with over 80% of all patients using online search before scheduling an appointment, there is no better time than now to do this.
2. You Can Improve Your Quality of Life
The two things that stood out to me even more than the decline in compensation are that the healthcare system employed physicians were working more hours and practiced fewer years. This tells me that the quality of life is not great.
This doesn’t need to be your reality, even if that’s where you find yourself today.
One of the best things about building a personal brand and marketing yourself online is that you can attract your ideal patients. It is possible to create a reality where you can do more of what you love, more profitably each day.
This leads me to my last takeaway…
3. You Must Take Ownership
If you’re like most physicians I know, you’ve worked too hard and sacrificed too much to have a career where you’re now making less money, working more hours, and are less satisfied with your work.
If you find yourself currently on that path, the only way your personal career outcome can change is if you take ownership and invest in the business of you.
My focus of this site is to equip physicians such as yourself with the knowledge of how to create and build your personal brand online. If you would like some additional hands-on help, please feel free to reach out.
