Based on the current playing field and environment, the trend is clear that hospitals and physicians are entering into employment relationships.  According to the 2012 edition of AHA Hospital Statistics, hospitals’ employment of physicians jumped 32% from 2000 to 2010.  It is difficult to know whether this trend will continue.  History has shown that it may switch back as it did the last time such a trend started.  I recently attended a very good conference, “Hospital- Physician Contracts: Survival Strategies,” which was put on by Horty Springer, a Pittsburgh law firm, and three of its attorneys, Dan Mulholland, Henry Casale, and  Phil Zarone.  Similar to information identified in their presentation, the issues that physicians and hospitals must deal with are enormous.  At the top of my list, I feel the key issues include:  * the economics (salary, benefits, nonmonetary compensation, vacation, call coverage) of the arrangement, * the medical staffing/control issues, and * the numerous regulatory restrictions, such as Stark, etc., that impact such relationship.  Physicians thinking of becoming employed by hospitals or selling their medical practice to a hospital need to carefully consider these issues and their impacts.