Corporate Giants Buy Up Primary Care Practices at Rapid Pace

NYT HEALTH: Corporate Giants Buy Up Primary Care Practices at Rapid Pace
By Reed Abelson
Section: Health
Source: New York Times
Published Date: May 8, 2023 at 03:00AM

Large health insurers and other companies are especially keen on doctors’ groups that care for patients in private Medicare plans.

It’s no surprise that the shortage of primary care doctors — who are critically important to the health of Americans — is getting worse.

They practice in one of medicine’s lowest paid, least glamorous fields. Most are overworked, seeing as many as 30 people a day; figuring out when a sore throat is a strep infection, or managing a patient’s chronic diabetes.

So why are multibillion-dollar corporations, particularly giant health insurers, gobbling up primary care practices? CVS Health, with its sprawling pharmacy business and ownership of the major insurer Aetna, paid roughly $11 billion to buy Oak Street Health, a fast-growing chain of primary care centers that employs doctors in 21 states. And Amazon’s bold purchase of One Medical, another large doctors’ group, for nearly $4 billion, is another such move.

The appeal is simple: Despite their lowly status, primary care doctors oversee vast numbers of patients, who bring business and profits to a hospital system, a health insurer or a pharmacy outfit eyeing expansion.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/08/health/primary-care-doctors-consolidation.html