Effects of physician joint ventures on health care costs, access, and quality: exploring some issues

Increasingly, physicians are joint-venturing with health care businesses such as physical therapy centers, diagnostic imaging centers, ambulatory surgical centers, and other services. Simultaneously, outpatient costs have been rising. Theoretical and empirical evidence, including results of an exploratory survey of experts, indicate that these two events are linked. Specifically, joint ventures between referring physicians and health care businesses often appear to increase costs, increase utilization, reduce quality of care, and reduce access.