BOSTON – An estimated 49 percent of physicians plan to stop practicing or reduce their number of patients over the next three years, according to a survey conducted by The Physicians’ Foundation.
According to “The Physicians’ Perspective: Medical Practice in 2008,” more than three quarters – 78 percent – of physicians believe there is an existing shortage of primary care doctors in the United States.
“Going into this project we generally knew about the shortage of physicians; what we didn’t know is how much worse it could get over the next few years,” said Lou Goodman, president of The Physicians’ Foundation, a Boston-based grantmaking foundation, founded in 2003, with assets of about $98 million.
“The thing we heard over and over again from the physicians was that they’re unhappy they can’t spend more time with their patients, which is why they went into primary care in the first place,” said Sandra Johnson, a board member of The Physicians’ Foundation.
Other reported reasons for frustration among physicians include increased time dealing with non-clinical paperwork, difficulty receiving reimbursement and burdensome government regulations.
Declining reimbursement rates at the top of the list of physician gripes. The survey, conducted between May and July of 2008, reports that 82 percent of doctors said their practices would be “unsustainable” if proposed cuts to Medicare reimbursements were made.
A third of physicians have already closed their practices to Medicaid patients, and 12 percent have closed their practice to Medicare patients, the survey said.
“The bottom line is that the person you’ve known as your family doctor could be getting ready to disappear – and there might not be a replacement,” said Goodman.
Sixty percent of those surveyed said that they wouldn’t recommend a medical career to young people.
“At a time when the new administration and new Congress are talking about ways to expand access to healthcare, the harsh reality is that there might not be enough doctors to handle the increased number of people who might want to see them if they get health insurance,” said Walker Ray, MD, vice president of The Physicians’ Foundation. “It’s basic supply and demand.”