Physician thoughts on healthcare reform

Last year the Physicians Foundation conducted a survey asking physicians about their thoughts on healthcare reform; the following are some of the more interesting responses: 

The majority of physicians (60%) said health reform will compel them to close or significantly restrict their practices to certain categories of patients. Of these, 93% said they will close or significantly restrict their practices to Medicaid patients, while 87% said they would close or significantly restrict their practices to Medicare patients. 

The majority of physicians (59%) said health reform will cause them to spend less time with patients. 

While more than half of physicians said health reform will cause patient volumes in their practices to increase, 69% said they no longer have the time or resources to see additional patients in their practices while still maintaining quality of care. 

Only 10% of physicians said reform will improve the quality of patient care they are able to provide, while 56% said reform will diminish the quality of care they are able to provide. 

With several months to consider the content and direction of the new law, 39% of physicians said they are now feel more negative about health reform than when it initially passed, compared to only 10% who now feel more positive. And, 67% said their initial reaction to passage of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was either “somewhat negative” or “very negative.” 

In response to reform, 40% of physicians said they would drop out of patient care in thenext one to three years, either by retiring, seeking a non‐clinical job within healthcare, or by seeking a non‐healthcare related job. 

The great majority of physicians surveyed (86%) believe the viewpoint of physicians was not adequately represented to policy makers during the run‐up to passage of health reform. 

Physicians are almost evenly divided over the relative importance of SGR (36%) and health reform (34%) to their practices, while 30% are unsure which will have the greatest impact. 

View the full survey and more at www.physiciansfoundation.org.