2024 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives
Medical Groups – Private E quity Driving Growth Twenty-six percent of AMN Healthcare’s search engagements tracked in the 2024 Review were conducted for medical groups, up from 24% the previous year and up from 18% the year before that. Increased physician and APP recruiting activity at medical groups is in part a result of the resources brought to bear by private equity companies, which have greatly expanded their footprint in the medical services market. Between 2019 and 2022, there was a 9% increase in the number of hospital-owned physician
practices. In the same time frame, there was an 86% increase in the number of corporate- owned physician practices. ( COVID-19’s Impact on Acquisitions of Physician Practices and Physician Employment. Physicians Advisory Institute April 2022 ). The acquisition of physician practices by private equity companies accelerated during the pandemic when many private practice groups were seeking additional financial resources. Many of these acquisitions were of high revenue-generating specialties, such as gastroenterology, dermatology, urology and others, which private equity companies seek to grow through the recruitment of physicians and APPs. Medical groups also actively recruit physicians and APPs to address workforce volatility, as physicians retire due to burnout or opt to switch practice settings.
increase in corporate- owned physician practices 88%
Urgent Care and Retail Pick Up the Recruiting Pace Thirteen percent of AMN Healthcare’s physician and APP search engagements conducted in the 2024 Review period were for urgent care centers, retail clinics, and other settings, up from 4% the previous year. Backed by the resources of retail giants, large hospital systems, and private equity companies, these venues have the ability to add personnel while seeking to create a “new front door” to the healthcare system. Many of these settings have expanded from offering basic primary care services provided mostly by NPs and PAs to offering more complex chronic care provided by primary care physicians and physician specialists. Should these settings continue to prove appealing to consumers, they can be expected to drive further physician and APP recruiting activity. An Uptick in Solo/Partnership/Concierge Recruitment Six percent of AMN Healthcare’s physician and APP search engagements tracked in the 2024 Review were conducted for solo practices, partnerships, or concierge practice settings, up from 2% the previous year and up from 1% the year before. These settings generally feature practice ownership, in which physicians are being recruited to set up their own solo practice or to join another physician as an owner/partner in a private practice. In some cases, these may be concierge/direct pay practices in which physicians contract directly with patients, bypassing third party payers, though not all concierge practices feature practice ownership. Independent medical practice ownership has dwindled in recent years and today the majority of physicians are employed. However, the increase in recruiting activity to these settings indicated by the 2024 Review suggests possible renewed physician interest in these practice settings, particularly concierge medicine which allows physicians to forego the challenges of third party payments.
© AMN Healthcare 2024
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