re: Why do doctors practice in so many offices? Isn't it just easier to stick to one?

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Why wouldn't every doctor take every insurance plan they possibly could

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Not every insurance plan reimburses at the same rate or allows more providers in their network.

The physician groups have a side gig speculating in real estate. I 1st saw this with dentists. Why put all that surplus income into stocks and bonds when you can open a satellite office in a growing part of town?

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(very major plan, big group)

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Large insurers reimburse less to physicians as the cost of access to their patients.

And only once you're in do they start to come up with even more reasons to not reimburse you.

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And only once you're in do they start to come up with even more reasons to not reimburse you.

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My favorite is when the insurers have no problem approving claims for their insured when the insured hasn't met their deductible and is responsible for the bill. As soon as their deductible is met though...the claim denial rate shoots through the roof.

If you’re a specialist; not everyone needs specialist. So you cover much more round with patients that are less willing to drive and having hundreds of patients drive longer routes instead of just yourself and couple key personnel to take commute.

Food for thought:
1. Over 77% of physicians are now employed as opposed to own their own practice. A lot are told where they will go work by their hospital, PE, insurance/healthcare conglomerate employer.
2. Particularly in the employed systems, "physician extenders" (nurse practicioners or PAs) do the main staffing and they are "supervised" by a physician (ratio of doc to extender varies).
3. If you are employed, most work on a production basis determined by the number of RVUs (kind of like billable hours) the physician can churn. In this scenario, you don't care what the insurance pays or the generally quality of referral you get. You just see as much volume as you can and you can get credit for RVUs just by supervising someone doing the visit. Or if a surgeon, let the extenders see and you just operate on them.
If you still own your own practice, you care how much you actually get paid to do the work so you have to be more selective about the insurance you take. There are definitely insurance companies that pay you less than your overhead if you aren't careful. You are also probably a bit more "customer service" oriented too.
One interesting factoid about ACA/ObamaCare: Prior to implementation, only about 35% of physicians were employed. Now over 77% are. Regardless of political affiliation, these are the facts and show the power of this piece of legislation to fundamentally alter the US health system. The shift in reimbursement models, increased regulation, increased power of insurance companies in their ability to vertically integrate has killed the private practice model in the US. It wasn't perfect but the private practice model of healthcare was much more patient centered than the debacle we have now. The Bush II admin forcing electronic medical records before they were ready for prime time and creation of Medicare Part D drug plan were the other nails in the coffin.
Rant over, Have a Merry Christmas all!!!

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Accessibility for patients

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It's primarily about insurance network credentialing. The vast majority of the locations are owned by a network such as the Vanderbilt network vs. St.Thomas vs TriStar (HCA). Also juggling the Medicare/Medicaid patients is quite challenge.

It has nothing - ZERO - to do with patient access or physicians making more money

You'll rarely see BCBS covered patients sitting in the same room as Medicaid patients. *Do so and you'll lose 90% of your higher end commercial insurance patients.

I was the managing partner of a major multidisciplinary clinic in Nashville. Obamacare phucked all of us independents.

Same reason drug rings work multiple corners.