Bans on noncompete clauses, the decline of private practices, and the decreased decision-making power for employed physicians are all trends one physician is watching.
Henri Gaboriau, MD, head of the department of ENT and facial plastic and reconstructive surgery at Adirondack Health in Saranac Lake, N.Y., connected with Becker's to discuss the trends he is keeping an eye on.
Note: This response has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Dr. Henri Gaboriau: As an employed physician, I am looking at two trends:
1. Ban on noncompete clauses: Working in New York state, I am disappointed that Gov. [Kathy] Hochul vetoed the noncompete ban bill. Noncompete clauses are made to be beneficial to hospitals but not to medical providers. Noncompete clauses help hospitals to keep providers (and by extension their families) locked into a position even if the compensation/benefits are less than they could possibly get based on their education/experience. As a medical professional and with numbers of new providers dwindling, I strongly feel that such clauses are an obstacle to free market economy.
2. Decline of private practices and the decline of power of decision for employed physicians: The strain of red tape (pre-auth, etc.) is becoming such a financial and time burden to private practices that it obliges many of them to look at becoming employed. The result is a financial imbalance between the private model (unable to financially compete with larger institutions) and the employed model, with less decision-making (regarding patient care) for the latter model. My concern is that, in the future, we are going to see larger institutions with more financial power making decisions based only on economics with less and less input from medical providers.
To conclude: I am glad to be six years from retirement and that my son doesn't want to become a physician.