To be a healthcare professional today is to feel the ground shifting under your feet.
In the two years since The Physicians Foundation last completed its Survey of America’s Physicians, the healthcare system in the United States has seen more changes than in any comparable two-year period in recent memory.
Following are just a few:
• The enrollment of eight million people in insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
• The enrollment of an additional five million Americans in Medicaid.
• An unprecedented number of hospital and medical group consolidations.
• The explosive proliferation of urgent care centers, retail clinics, and other outpatient facilities.
• The release of billing data by Medicare on thousands of physicians.
• The continued rapid adoption of electronic medical records (EMR).
• The implementation of quality based tracking and reimbursement systems.
• The continued expansion of AccountableCare Organizations (ACOs).
• A growing physician shortage, dramatically highlighted this year by long lines at Veterans Administration facilities.
