During challenging times, it is easy for a person to single out the only answer that they see, but often, adopting this tunnel vision approach, results in by-passing some overlooked, but significant, solutions.

Health reform has many physicians feeling like they are backed in to a corner, in regards to their careers and their futures. The only seeming option for private practice owners will be to eventually close doors, and seek physician employment opportunities elsewhere, under hospitals or other large healthcare organizations.

This is no walk in the park for healthcare facilities either. Hospital administrators must consider a number of critical issues, and most are likely to come with road blocks.

When recruiting doctors themselves, hospitals are responsible for all facets of services provided, including potential lawsuits, measuring throughput, and measuring physician performance. These issues require decision-makers to understand the role of physicians, which is almost impossible. Doctors respond to doctors, so structure results in optimal throughput, shortened patient wait-times, and fewer lawsuits, making the outsourced physician services provider the obvious answer for hospitals.

Reggie Hill, a Nashville-based lawyer, specializes in healthcare industry law and has authored numerous articles about physician outsourcing trends and pitfalls.

“Because of the perception that there will continue to be cuts in reimbursement and new reimbursement models, hospitals are looking for ways to cut expenses and maximize revenue,” Hill said.

“If an outsourcing agreement looks like it will accomplish those goals, it’s going to be something a hospital will want to take advantage of, in particular, there has been continued growth in the number of organizations that are seeking out revenue-cycle management services; there are vendors that have shown they can add value, and more hospitals are giving it a try.”