Physicians' perspectives of HMOs and marketing: implications and recommendations

The authors compare physicians in HMOs and those not in HMOs in order to determine how HMOs have affected their practices. Physicians in HMOs see more patients per day, but receive less income per patient than physicians not in HMOs; however, both groups of physicians agree that HMOs have not changed marketing practices. In fact, both groups report uncertainty as to the best way to market their practice, and in their understanding of marketing. The physicians do agree that patient referrals are the most important means of patient acquisition; however, both groups report a surprisingly low use of patient questionnaires. Implications and recommendations for HMOs, physicians, and health care marketing researchers are discussed.