Many health systems believe that employment secures primary care physician (PCP) referrals. However, PCP employment doesn’t guarantee network integrity. Our data analysis reveals that it’s a coin flip. PCPs are only slightly more likely to refer in-network than out-of-network for specialty care.

Only 55% of total referral revenue attributed to employed PCPs is realized in-network.¹ Said another way, PCPs send 45% of their referral revenue to competitors. Taken together, this referral leakage costs $388M in annual revenue per system.