Hospital requirement to use hospital employed hospitalist

At a recent reunion-med school class 1965- a retired internist from Florida told me that at the hospital he used it was mandatory for a hospitalist to consult on any patient admitted to the ICU. (Pulmonary-critical care docs were exempted from this rule). The several hospitalists employed by this hospital were all general internists, no one had critical care certification or training but the hospital basically coerced the internist who was not self designated as a hospitalist to allow other internists who were self designated as hospitalists to take over his patient's care. I have no sense of how widespread this practice is or of the exact details of this arrangement. HCRENEWAL has a post referencing the AMA's recent move to lobby for federal legislation to prohibit hospitals from hiring physicians. It seems like the old corporate practice of medicine issue is being revisited. This should energize lobbying efforts on both sides of this issue.