Over a seven-year period prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 23.9 percent of hospitalists found full- or part-time jobs in other healthcare settings, with some still working part-time in hospitals, a JAMA Open Network study published Nov. 5 found.
Researchers used Medicare Provider Utilization and Payment data to track 16,985 hospitalists from 2012–2018. Physicians billing at least 90 percent at hospitals or at least 100 visits annually were included in the study.
By 2018, 83.4 percent of physicians were still billing at least 90 percent of their visits at hospitals; 3.5 percent worked mostly at hospitals with additional office work; 2.7 percent worked mostly at hospitals with additional skilled-nursing facility work; and 2.7 percent worked mostly in other healthcare settings.
Noted limitations of the study included use of Medicare fee-for-service claims but not claims for other payers.