A comparison of the performance of hospital- and physician-owned medical group practices.

This study compares the financial and productivity performance of hospital- versus physician-owned medical group practices. Nineteen hospital-owned and twenty-three physician-owned family practices were matched by location (state) and size (full-time equivalent providers). The data were obtained from the 1998 Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) Cost Survey database. The focus of this study is on the "bottom-line" performance of the organizations as well as the production costs of the different type of practices. Analyses of these data consider staffing differences, charge and revenue differentials, productivity factors, and differences in patient volume and procedure volume. When comparing the hospital-owned and physician-owned family practice groups, the statistical analysis of these data suggest that the underlying distinctions are driven by differences in the volume of patients and volume of procedures.