[tophcfa]

Originally Posted by Gig1414

Retired CFO of a hospital system here. I was working when hospitals started employing MD’s, and probably hired thousands of PCP’s in my career. They were mostly paid under a fairly complex production system, which provided a $ amount per RVU (relative value unit), with incentives for things such as quality and patient satisfaction. We always lost money on the PCP line of business, and when reporting these results to the Board, I began to refer to the PCP’s as our “sales force”. They got this, and understood that it was a supply/demand issue, and PCP’s were needed to feed our Cardiac, Oncology, Orthopedic etc. programs.

Interesting, that explains why it was like pulling teeth (before I went on Traditional Medicare) to get my PCP to give me a referral to a specialist outside of their affiliated practice.