According to a new Commonwealth Fund sponsored study published in Health Affairs , “ Small Primary Care Physician Practices Have Low Rates Of Preventable Hospital Admissions ”. The study of over one thousand practices of various sizes and ownerships, conducted by some of the most respected names in health care, found that the smallest independent primary care practices, that are physician owned, provide better care at lower overall cost. Considering the current, and rather belligerent, advocacy and policy efforts to eradicate small independent medical practice, and the massive move of physicians from private practice to hospital employment in the name of efficiency, quality, value and economies of scale, this study should have created quite the furor. It has not, and chances are excellent that it never will. The study, consisting of 1045 practices and 284,000 patients, is a combination of survey responses regarding practice characteristics, and Medicare claims data used to calculate ra