It used to be that doctors were running their own small medical offices a lot. Unfortunately, due to insurance overhead it's no longer profitable for individual doctors to do that, especially without existing patients, so the remaining offices are mostly from doctors near retirement age.
So as doctors retire and new doctors don't want to start their own practices those practices have been getting bought out by large medical networks or private equity. Some offices are also going out of network with insurance companies. It doesn't help that PE is willing to pay a ton more than any new doctor could for the practice.
I'd recommend picking medical plans with out referral requirements and with good out-of-network coverage.
I wrote a more detailed post elsewhere in this thread, but I also think this is the case and you can see an analogue with consolidation of clinical trial sites by private equity.
> Private equity dollars are flowing toward clinical trial sites as industry conditions demand larger site networks, PitchBook's analysis of first quarter 2024 deal activity shows.
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> For CROs, scooping up trial sites is one aspect of a greater movement toward vertical and horizontal consolidation, a long-standing trend that is still playing out in the space, the PitchBook report confirmed. CROs continue to combine with contract development and manufacturing organizations to establish end-to-end drug development capabilities under a single roof, making them more competitive in the outsourcing market.
My brother was a Family Medicine doctor and he got burned out and retired early and is now a potter lol. His ex gf was a doctor and did the same. I suspect this sort of thing is behind a lot of the issues this article is explaining. After Covid, a large portion of the world that could retire did so and never came back. Those that are left and stuck in that world working or trying to use it, are not happy about it.
It used to be that doctors were running their own small medical offices a lot. Unfortunately, due to insurance overhead it's no longer profitable for individual doctors to do that, especially without existing patients, so the remaining offices are mostly from doctors near retirement age.
So as doctors retire and new doctors don't want to start their own practices those practices have been getting bought out by large medical networks or private equity. Some offices are also going out of network with insurance companies. It doesn't help that PE is willing to pay a ton more than any new doctor could for the practice.
I'd recommend picking medical plans with out referral requirements and with good out-of-network coverage.