Vinny,
Our specialty community is mostly without any competition. Only 1 urology group, 1 cardiology group, 1 nephrology group, 1 endocrinology group, 1 gastroenterology group, most of it owned by the hospital. As such, the attitude appears to be "take it our leave it." Each group has this poorly drafted "referral intake form" that must be filled out. So my staff has to get information from AC and HANDWRITE it on the the referral form. If I don't do this, my patients will not get specialty consultation. The AC generated referral form (which has all the fields required) gets thrown away! Now if they do get an appointment, the initial visit is with a physician's assistant who would send back a referral letter with something profoundly inane that adds nothing to the patient's care.
As a consequence, many of my patient prefer to get better service and are willing to drive 150 miles to Seattle.
I don't understand how hospitals can be exempt from anti-trust (as they have "integrated" our medical community with the exception of the FQHCs).
