Unfortunately in many places of the US this is starting to change. Companies like Advent Health (used to be Florida Hospital) have been seizing control of medical practices from the doctors.
The common scheme is to offer logistical support (dealing with paperwork, IT, etc) in exchange for joining under their umbrella (with the implicit or sometimes not so implicit promise that otherwise they exert no influence over the operation of the practice). Then after a few months to a year they start making sweeping changes restricting what patients the doctor is allowed to see, what treatments they are allowed to provide or suggest, how much they can charge, and where they are allowed to see or treat their patients. Essentially resting any autonomy the doctors had over their practice.
This is what happened to our PCP and many other doctors in Florida. They were given an ultimatum and any patients who didn't fit the profile Advent had selected for them were forced to leave them for some other doctor.
Nowadays the only doctors with any "real" autonomy are surgeons and even then the actual autonomy they have is being increasingly encroached upon.
I'm not sure how common this is in other regions but at least in Florida it is becoming increasingly difficult to find Doctors who haven't been effectively tricked into forfeiting control of their practices and reduced to employees for large corporations.
The common scheme is to offer logistical support (dealing with paperwork, IT, etc) in exchange for joining under their umbrella (with the implicit or sometimes not so implicit promise that otherwise they exert no influence over the operation of the practice). Then after a few months to a year they start making sweeping changes restricting what patients the doctor is allowed to see, what treatments they are allowed to provide or suggest, how much they can charge, and where they are allowed to see or treat their patients. Essentially resting any autonomy the doctors had over their practice.
This is what happened to our PCP and many other doctors in Florida. They were given an ultimatum and any patients who didn't fit the profile Advent had selected for them were forced to leave them for some other doctor.
Nowadays the only doctors with any "real" autonomy are surgeons and even then the actual autonomy they have is being increasingly encroached upon.
I'm not sure how common this is in other regions but at least in Florida it is becoming increasingly difficult to find Doctors who haven't been effectively tricked into forfeiting control of their practices and reduced to employees for large corporations.