48% Of Physicians Do Not Foresee Ability to Accept New Patients From Accountable Care Act, Impacting Access To Care, According to Physician Profitability Index
New Index of 5,000 U.S. Physicians Reveals Downward Trend In Profitability For The Year Ahead, With Healthcare Reform Fueling Top Operational Challenges
CareCloudJohn Hallock, 617-615-7712Vice President, Corporate CommunicationsorQuantiaMDRoss Homer, 617-219-6164Communications Manager
, a leading provider of , , and software and services, and , the largest social learning and collaboration platform serving more than 170,000 validated physician members, today announced the findings of the first . The announcement took place at the inaugural , sponsored by VentureBeat in San Francisco. The PPI was created and launched as part of a partnership between the two companies and was designed to provide a voice to US physician practices regarding issues impacting the financial and operational health of their practices.
The key finding of the PPI study was that the 5,012 physician participants were two-thirds more likely to foresee a downward trend in profitability for the year ahead than a positive one (). Three of the top four issues negatively affecting profitability for all physicians stemmed from healthcare reform, led by declining reimbursements rising costsAffordable Care Act-related requirements and coding and documentation changes, including ICD-10 The PPI also found that of physician practices indicated that increased operational and billing pressures will leave them unable to accept any of the influx of 30 million newly insured Americans expected to join the healthcare system, indicating a concerning access to care issue. Despite these challenges, PPI physicians are demonstrating resolve and resourcefulness in managing their practices and balancing operational demands with their desire to deliver outstanding care to patients.
The , which also explore physician’s opinions about: the time spent on administration rather than patient care; technology adoption; staying independent amid industry consolidation; the impact of healthcare reform; and strategies for improving operational performance, including some breakouts by state – can be accessed via Power Your Practice, an online resource site for medical professionals: .
Additional key findings from the 2013 PPI included:
"As a physician, I fully support any effort to provide more Americans with increasingly higher-quality healthcare,” said James Franks, MD, a Family Practitioner based in Forrest City, AR and a QuantiaMD member and participant in the 2013 PPI. “But given the changing landscape in healthcare, driven by reform, I am fearful that my patients will increasingly compete for my time with growing administrative demands – while my practice struggles to keep its head above water financially. This only creates a potentially dangerous access to care problem, which is the exact issue the reform efforts looked to address.”
“Some of the stem from the gap between changes underway at a systemic level in healthcare and their real-world impact on the daily lives of physicians, staff and patients,” said Albert Santalo, CareCloud’s CEO. “The positive takeaway and hope for sustainable healthcare reform is the majority of physicians remain focused on sustaining their practices independently and feel technology aimed at operational improvement and guidance from their peers will be key focuses for success in the years ahead.”
“In the first phase of our partnership with CareCloud, we worked together to uncover the most critical practice performance issues physicians are facing today,” said Eric Schultz, Executive Chairman of QuantiaMD. “Utilizing the QuantiaMD platform and community, we will now work together to provide educational content about these topics and enable peer-to-peer collaboration on a mass scale to help physicians across the country make their practices more successful."
The was created to provide a voice to physician practices across the US regarding issues that impact their financial and operational health. It reflects the belief that better health outcomes for Americans are more likely to be achieved when practices themselves are thriving and efficient.
QuantiaMD, the largest social learning and collaboration platform for physicians, is transforming the way healthcare is delivered. By applying the latest social technologies to medicine, QuantiaMD is modernizing how physicians work together and interact with the major participants in healthcare, including hospitals, ACOs and life sciences companies. On QuantiaMD, 170,000+ physicians share real-life experiences from clinical practices nationwide, in minutes, and engage directly with healthcare institutions to meet a variety of objectives that reduce costs and improve the quality of care. Built from the ground up for how physicians practice today, QuantiaMD's scalable platform is fully mobile, secure and easy-to-use. To learn more, visit . For client solutions, visit .
CareCloud is a leading provider of cloud-based practice management, electronic health record (EHR) and medical billing software and services for medical groups. The company's products are connecting providers to one another – and to their patients – through a fully integrated digital healthcare ecosystem that can be accessed on any browser or device.
CareCloud is helping thousands of providers increase collections, streamline operations and improve patient care in more than 45 states. The company received over $20 million in Series A funding from Intel Capital and Norwest Venture Partners in 2011. To learn more about CareCloud, please visit .