In this report, we study changes in billing and practice patterns following providers’ acquisition by health systems, from 2018 to 2022, using HCCI’s unique dataset of people with employer-sponsored insurance. First, we looked at Evaluation and Management (E&M) visits to see if providers that had been acquired billed higher intensity visits following acquisition, which could increase revenue from office visits for the acquiring health systems. Second, we examined whether acquired providers were more likely to steer patients to a hospital facility as site of care for medical diagnostic tests following acquisition. Lastly, we assessed whether acquired providers billed add-on facility fees that they did not bill prior to acquisition.
Overall, we found evidence that providers billed for higher intensity E&M visits and were more likely to have hospital-based diagnostic tests following acquisition. We did not find, however, that providers acquired by health systems were more likely to bill a facility fee with office visits following acquisition.