MGMA Weekend Review: Private Equity in Healthcare, Physician Work-Life Balance, and the Trump Tariffs
Download MP3Hi, everyone. I'm Daniel Williams, senior editor at MGMA and host of the MGMA Podcast Network, along with co host Colleen Luckett, editor and writer at MGMA. We are back with another MGMA Weekend Review Podcast and just excited to bring y'all the latest health care industry news, occasionally some policy updates, a lot of expert insights, and occasionally stories from Colleen and me that we like to share with you all. So, with all that said, Colleen, hey, happy day to you. How are you doing?
Colleen Luckett:Thanks. Happy day to you. Yeah. We were we were just having some Zoom issues today. There was an outage.
Colleen Luckett:Yeah. We feel your pain if anyone else was
Daniel Williams:I know.
Colleen Luckett:Feeling that today, but we're back. So Yeah. Yeah. So I am gonna start with a little bit of private equity story. So this week, a group of medical students, yes, the ones still somehow surviving on caffeine and sheer sheer will, published a must read piece at health affairs titled private equity's impact on medical trainees.
Colleen Luckett:It's all about how private equity ownership is reshaping not just physician practices and patient care, but the training environment for the next generation of providers. So what's the diagnosis? Let's just say it's grim. Private Equity now owns 65% of acquired practices and nearly 30% of for profit hospitals, and its short term profit driven model model is colliding hard with the long term mission of medical education. Medical trainees are caught in the middle, fewer teaching opportunities, pressure to prioritize profit over evidence based care, and even threats to residency stability and loan forgiveness.
Colleen Luckett:Some residents are being replaced by nonphysicians to cut costs. Others have faced sudden relocations, like when Hanama University Hospital shut down, leaving 550 residents scrambling mid training. Even visa issues and accreditation loss are on the table in these chaotic transitions. The authors argue that these business practices are not only negatively impacting patient outcomes, they're demoralizing future physicians and could worsen the projected shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036. Well, their call to action is policy change from ending noncompetes and boosting Medicare payments to supporting small practices and reviving legislation like the shot like the Stop Wall Street Looting Act.
Colleen Luckett:And the authors say we need proactive structural reforms, not just Band Aids after the damage is already done. So, again, that's private equity's impact on medical Trainees in Health Affairs Forefront newsletter. It was published on April 14. Read it with a double espresso. It's that urgent.
Colleen Luckett:Okay, Daniel, over to you.
Daniel Williams:That's so funny that you mentioned double espresso. Full disclosure, Colleen and everyone, I've been a tea drinker for like twenty years. And this weekend, I just wanted to mix things up and I've shifted to coffee. And yeah. Oh, it's all over.
Daniel Williams:Literally bouncing off the walls yesterday. I was just could not. Wow. My energy levels down yesterday and now I feel like I'm paying for it. I think I feel like I'm crashing.
Daniel Williams:So
Colleen Luckett:I'm You know, I'm a little jealous of that first coffee hit, though, because I've been a coffee drinker forever. So that must have been kind of fun yes yesterday.
Daniel Williams:Oh, boy. Did it get me. Yes. So to our next story. All right, everybody.
Daniel Williams:I want to talk about something that'll hit close to home for a lot of you managing medical practices. Your doctor can't seem to log off, even on vacation. There's a new Health Leaders article that's got a title you might appreciate, How to Keep Physicians Out of the EHR During Their Time Off. That's right, not just after hours. We're talking PTO, beach time, long weekends, and guess what?
Daniel Williams:A whole lot of physicians are still in their inbox. A study published in JAMA Network Open followed 56 primary care physicians and found out that on average they were spending over sixteen minutes per day in the EHR during vacation. Some were logging thirty plus minutes a day. But here's the kicker. The EHR activity was highest on the first and last days of vacation because nothing says relaxing getaway like answering MyChart messages from a hotel room.
Daniel Williams:A physician from Vertua Medical Group summed it up nicely. They actually call this pajama time, that nightly scramble to catch up on documentation, med refills, and patient messages after hours. So what are practices like Virtua doing about it? First, coverage systems. When a doc's out, there's a structured plan in place.
Daniel Williams:No more guilt about who's handling the inbox. Next, taming the inbox in basket. Only the messages that truly need a physician's eyes get through. The rest routed to the right team member. And this one's wild.
Daniel Williams:They've hired in basketologists. These are nurse practitioners dedicated to scrubbing the in basket so docs don't get bogged down in stuff someone else from the team can handle. On the tech side, Ardent Health is rolling out ambient AI tools, think real time conversation capture during the visit, that takes the documentation off the physician's plate. Their CMIO, Doctor. Bradley Hoyt, said they've seen a 50% cut in pajama time and a 41% drop in documentation time.
Daniel Williams:Not bad, right? So here's the takeaway for practice leaders. If your docs are coming back from vacation looking more tired than when they left, you've got a workflow problem and not a time off problem. Build coverage, rethink the inbox, and maybe ask yourself, could AI actually give my team more human time? Alright, Colleen.
Daniel Williams:What's next?
Colleen Luckett:Well, I was thinking I need one of those in how do you even say in basketologists?
Daniel Williams:I think so.
Colleen Luckett:I'm one of those people who never deletes her emails drive, you know, OCD people insane, bro. Leva. Yeah. Well, let's move on to the next story. So if you've ever tried figuring out physician compensation without a dedicated team, you know it's like trying to assemble IKEA furniture without the instructions.
Colleen Luckett:Sure. You might get it done, but someone's definitely going to lose a screw. And I guess we can say that figuratively or literally on that one. This week's MDMA stat article is titled, do you have dedicated resources for physician compensation decisions? It's by my boss, Chris Harrop.
Colleen Luckett:It dives into how practices are navigating one of the most critical and complex aspects of medical group management, paying physicians fairly while keeping the lights on. According to our April 15 stat poll, only 30% 36% of medical groups have a dedicated team or committee for physician compensation. A solid 61% of you do not. And then there are those 3% who are not sure, which kinda sounds like their compensation model lives on someone's Google Drive under final final updated v three. I have a few of those, I think.
Colleen Luckett:For those of for those with formal teams, many meet monthly or quarterly, usually led by a c suite leader like the CEO or CFO, sometimes sharing the reins with the medical director. Without a formal group, comp decisions are typically handled by a combo of the exec team, physician partners, or board members. The article also breaks down how compensation strategies vary across practice teams. So private practices lean on collaborative decisions between physician owners and admins. Midsized groups often use structured executive governance, and system owned outpatient clinics tend to have full fledged comp committees with compliance and compensation experts in the mix.
Colleen Luckett:So what's trending? We're seeing a shift toward more physician input to team based incentives. And, hey, no surprises here, an increased role for AI in modeling, forecasting, and even assigning work RVUs. In fact, half of medical groups now include quality metrics in their compensation models, which is trending up from last year. You can read the full article at MGMA.com, MGMA hyphen stat.
Colleen Luckett:And as always, if you want to help shape future MGMA resources, please sign up for MGMA stat by texting 233550 or you can fill out the form on the website. Okay, Daniel, back to you.
Daniel Williams:All right. This will be just a wonderful topic for everybody. We're going to talk about tariffs. If you haven't heard about it in the just general news, but there is a message here because it can impact medical practices, especially if you're handling the business side, the acquisition side. So there's a really interesting piece that was released this week from medical economics.
Daniel Williams:It's called Trump Tariff Impacts Why Businesses Need a Response Plan Now. So here's the deal. And this changes day to day. So even as I'm reading this, I'm going, now is that the percentage that I saw earlier today? Because some of the percentages are changing.
Daniel Williams:However, this says that president Trump has proposed massive new tariffs, 10% across the board, own all imports, and a whopping six this says 60% on goods from China. But, Colleen, that may have changed since the we last even this person wrote
Colleen Luckett:this one. Minutes.
Daniel Williams:So here's the deal. As many of you may know, president Trump has proposed many new tariffs across the board. Some of those have come down. Some, as far as with China, are continuing to rise. So what's the goal?
Daniel Williams:Reshoring American manufacturing. The likely outcome? Disruptions and cost increases, especially for small and mid sized businesses that rely on global supply chains. So you may be wondering again, how does this hit healthcare? Well, think about it from this perspective.
Daniel Williams:Think about medical equipment, IT systems, exam room supplies, even furniture. If and when those particular tariffs go into effect, the cost of running a practice could spike and quickly. And we all know that rising overhead without increased reimbursement is a recipe for burnout and margin panic. The article quotes a few experts who basically say, don't wait. Now's the time to do the following.
Daniel Williams:Audit your current vendors and contracts. Look at what products are sourced internationally. Build contingency plans for price fluctuations or disruptions. And maybe even negotiate long term pricing now while things are stable ish. What stood out to me was a simple truth.
Daniel Williams:Even if the tariffs don't materialize in the way we thought they might, the uncertainty alone is a risk. And healthcare businesses already stretched thin can't afford to be reactive. You gotta have a plan. So whether you're leading a specialty group or a solo practice, this is your reminder to loop in your operations and finance folks. Review what's coming in and from where, and start thinking strategically before the ripple hits your bottom line.
Daniel Williams:Alright. That's your quick econ pulse check, everyone. Alright, everybody. Thanks, Colleen. That is gonna do it for this episode of MGMA Week in Review.
Daniel Williams:If you liked what you heard, be sure to follow and subscribe to the MGMA Podcast Network wherever you get your podcast. You'll find links in the show notes to today's full stories as well as additional resources for medical practice leaders. Thanks for listening everybody and we'll see you next time.
Colleen Luckett:Bye.
