Some large groups now offer education to their members in all avenues, not only clinical education, but also leadership and management education. Another increasingly significant plus for a large group is in the area of compliance. As compliance becomes more crucial to EM practitioners, a large group can alleviate much of the burden on individual physicians. With the tightening regulatory environment it seems that a simple coding or billing error can lead to charges of fraud or abuse. A large group helps protect physicians from personal liability and provides the training and support that can prevent such errors.
Large groups exist for the purpose of providing management services.
If a physician has a desire to be heavily involved in every aspect of practice management, then a large group may not be right for you. However, if you would rather concentrate your efforts on the clinical practice of EM, a large group takes the administrative responsibility off of the physician s shoulders. Because Medical Directors and physicians prefer to operate the emergency department with a local focus, management groups stay in the background providing support for that local focus on clinical services. One misconception of large groups is that the groups charge hospitals more for their services than they should. In fact, continuing financial constraints on hospitals and heavy competition ensure that large groups maintain moderate margins and charge fairly for their services.