THE COST OF ADMINISTRATIVE OVERHEAD: The Decline of the Indy Doctor, the Rise of Costs.

When doctors become employees, things start to get ugly. In City Journal, Dr. Joel M. Zinberg argues that independent practices are becoming increasingly uncommon as newly-minted doctors rush to become employees of hospitals. MDs, says Zinberg, are driven into the open arms of hospital administrators by the expensive and time-consuming overhead of operating their own practices—overhead that the ACA has only increased. . . .

When hospitals acquire doctors and independent practices, the cost of care actually goes up. It really, really does. Big hospitals with few independent practices means a more expensive system, not one that prioritizes cost-efficiency over patient welfare. In a time at which medical debt may be rising, that is reason enough to worry.

Yep.