Investigators from Northeastern University Target Insurance (Impact of Hospital-physician Integration On Medicare Patient Mix): Insurance

2025 MAY 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health Policy and Law Daily -- Fresh data on Insurance are presented in a new report. According to news reporting from Boston, Massachusetts, by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Hospital employment of physicians, often called hospital-physician vertical integration, has become widespread in health care delivery, but whether hospital employment tilts the case mix of physicians toward higher-complexity patients remains unknown. Cross-sectional and difference-in-differences analysis of 2014-2019 Medicare Standard Analytic Files.”

Financial support for this research came from Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality.

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Northeastern University, “We compared pre- and postemployment patient panels of primary care physicians who did and did not become hospital employees, analyzing changes in the prevalence of chronic conditions. We measured arthritis, depression, diabetes, hypertension, and ischemic heart disease. We also evaluated whether patients who were dropped from physician panels found alternative sources of primary care. Hospital-employed physicians treated patients of similar or better health; for instance, 54% of integrated physicians’ patients had 2 or more chronic conditions compared with 56% among independent physicians (P < .001). After becoming hospital employees, physicians treated approximately 10% fewer Medicare patients (-9.5%; 95% CI, -11.3% to -7.7%). Within physician panels, the prevalence of patients with 2 or more chronic conditions did not significantly change after employment relative to independent physicians (-1.1%; 95% CI, -2.3% to 0.2%). Approximately 37% of patients were dropped from physician panels after employment; these patients were less likely to find alternative primary care compared with those dropped from independent physician panels (P < .001).”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Hospital employment of physicians resulted in neither a higher number nor a higher proportion of complex patients treated by integrated physicians, at least among traditional Medicare patients.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Impact of Hospital-physician Integration On Medicare Patient Mix. American Journal of Managed Care, 2025;31(4). American Journal of Managed Care can be contacted at: Managed Care & Healthcare Communications Llc, 666 Plainsboro Rd, Ste 300, Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Brady Post, Northeastern University, Bouve College of Health Science, Dept. of Health Sciences, Boston, MA, United States. Additional authors for this research include Farbod Alinezhad and Gary J. Young.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.37765/ajmc.2025.89724. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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