Physician unionization: a threat to integration?

Abstract

Physicians, primarily those salaried by hospitals and health systems, are increasingly turning to labor unions to help them in their frustration over what they see as eroding clinical autonomy as well as diminishing compensation. Significantly, non-salaried physicians are also looking to the concept of collective bargaining as a tool in their negotiations with health insurers. The pro-labor doctors may get some of what they're looking for in the coming months and years, with a combination of economic and political forces driving the nascent trend forward regionally and nationwide. But victory won't come without a struggle and some major legal and regulatory hassles. And what will physician unionization mean for integrated health systems and other large healthcare organizations? Plenty, say industry observers and those in the trenches.