The Physicians Foundation is out with its latest biennial survey of physicians in the country, looking at work satisfaction, practice patterns, and other attitudes of over 20,000 survey participants. Key questions addressed in the survey include these:
- Are they seeing more or fewer patients?
- Do they continue to accept Medicare and Medicaid as a form of payment?
- How do they grade the Affordable Care Act?
- How many are part of an ACO?
- What effect have electronic medical records had on their practice?
- Are they independent practice owners or employees?
- Do they plan to retire, work part-time, practice concierge medicine, seek hospital employment, or pursue some other option?
And here are some of the answers from physicians:
- 38% do not see Medicaid patients or limit the number of Medicaid patients seen.
- 46% give the Affordable Care Act a failing grade.
- 26% participate in an ACO, but only 13% think ACOs will improve quality or lower costs.
- 85% have adopted electronic medical record,s but 46% say they detract from their efficiency.
- 53% describe themselves as employees, up from 44% in 2012.
- 44% plan to take steps that could impact the physician supply and patient access, such as retiring, closing their practices to new patients, cutting back on the number of patients seen, or seeking a non-clinical job.
Source: Merritt Hawkins. 2014 survey of America’s physicians: practice patterns & perspectives. Physicians Foundation, Sept. 2014. http://www.physiciansfoundation.org/uploads/default/2014_Physicians_Foundation_Biennial_Physician_Survey_Report.pdf
Posted by AHA Resource Center, (312) 422-2050, rc@aha.org
