ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Health Policy and Management
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1574388
Physician Group Practice in China's Healthcare Reform: A National Survey on Physicians' Perspectives and Implementation Challenges
Provisionally accepted
- 1Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
- 2IAE Paris - Sorbonne Business School, Paris, France
- 3Chinese Non-government Medical Institutions Association, Shanghai, China
- 4Department of Critical Care Medcine, People's Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing, China
- 5China Information Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: The physician group (PG) model, while well-established in the United States, is a relatively recent healthcare delivery innovation in China. Despite rapid growth in PG registrations, comprehensive understanding of physicians' perspectives remains limited. Objective: To investigate Chinese physicians' perspectives and concerns regarding the PG model and identify factors influencing their support for its implementation. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among 535 Chinese physicians between October-November 2024. The survey assessed participants' views on PG advantages, concerns, and overall support. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and variance analyses to explore correlations between physicians' characteristics and their perspectives.Results: Key facilitators for PG development included "New career direction outside the existing system" (75.1%) and "Improved income levels" (74.4%). Major concerns comprised "Policies restricting physician mobility" (69.7%) and "Lack of support from hospital managers" (57.8%). Overall support for PGs was moderate (3.710 ± 1.241).Administrative position holders showed significantly higher support than nonadministrative staff (p = 0.004), and longer work experience correlated positively with support (p = 0.037). Hospital level and specialty area showed no significant influence on support levels.This first systematic study of Chinese physicians' perspectives on PGs reveals moderate support driven by career development and income opportunities, while highlighting regulatory and institutional barriers. Results suggest the need for stable policies, enhanced income frameworks, and targeted support for early career physicians-who currently show less support than experienced physicians-to facilitate successful PG implementation in China.
Keywords: physician group practice, Healthcare reform, Health Policy, Chinese healthcare system, Medical Workforce Management
Received: 11 Feb 2025; Accepted: 16 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fan, Meng, Zhang, Liu, Han, Liu and Shi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rui Fan, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 21205, Maryland, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.