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Re:Who employs your doctor? Increasingly, a private equity firm by pc86 on Sunday July 16, 2023 @12:09PM (#36748529)
Physicians are absolutely reimbursed per procedure, per surgery, per test, etc. OB specifically has a higher concentration of employed doctors, but the hospitals are still reimbursed the same way, and these numbers are 100% taken into account when determining things like bonuses and promotions. But other specialties (like family med) are still dominated by private practices where physicians directly earn more by doing more.

The balancing act of this is that oversight is (typically) by qualified medical professionals who can judge whether a given procedure, test, surgery, etc. was medically indicated or not.

Re:Who employs your doctor? Increasingly, a private equity firm by Calavar on Sunday July 16, 2023 @12:40PM (#36748898)
> 100% taken into account when determining things like bonuses and promotions

Eh, there's some truth to what you said but it's a bit of a stretch. For bonuses, it depends on specialty and practice. In my current job I have zero incentive structure, period. If by some miracle, zero patients showed up on my shift, I would make exactly the same as if I saw 20 patients. I also don't get any reimbursement for the procedures I do -- 100% of that goes to the hospital. This is an increasingly common compensation model.

As for promotions. Not at all. First, physicians tend to have a very flat hierarchy outside of academics. At may hospitals, you're either CMO, a department chief, or just some guy. So I would estimate that promotion is not even on the something that's on radar for > 90% of physicians. Second, productivity is not a principle criterion for promotion. If a hospital or clinic promotes a physician, they are going to take a large chunk of that physician's clinical time and replace it with administrative work. Your most clinically productive person is precisely the last person you want to do that with.