As hospitals take over doctors' practices, fees rise

Hospitals throughout Florida are taking over doctors' practices at a rapid—and some say worrisome—rate. The most recent local example of this is the potential sale of Physician Associates, one of the largest multispecialty practices in Central Florida, with 95 doctors. The physician group is entertaining bids from the area's most eligible suitors, Florida Hospital and Orlando Health. Today 40 percent of primary-care physicians nationwide are hospital employees, more than double the number employed by hospitals in 2000, according to Southwind, a Nashville, Tenn.-based consulting group that analyzes health-care trends. In 2000, only one in 20 specialists was a hospital employee; today nearly one in four is.