Since 2007, when the government began repeatedly cutting Medicare payments to doctors, the number of cardiologists working for U.S. hospitals has more than trip

Since 2007, when the government began repeatedly cutting Medicare payments to doctors, the number of cardiologists working for U.S. hospitals has more than tripled, while the number in private practice has fallen 23 percent, according to the ACC. Jay Alexander, a cardiologist who co-owned a practice in Lake County, Ill., says he sold out to a local hospital after his Medicare revenue dropped 35 percent. Now the government pays Alexander three times as much to perform the same tests and procedures—far more than he would have needed to keep his private practice open. “If this was government’s solution to reducing health-care costs, they should have their heads examined,” he says. “This is an unfortunate consequence of bad planning.”