More than a third of physicians predict their practices will be less profitable (36 percent) in the coming year rather than more (22 percent), according to a new survey of 5,012 physicians from technology company CareCloud and physician-education platform QuantiaMD.
Other key findings of the firms' first Practice Profitability Index included the following:
The majority (65 percent) of respondents reported declining reimbursements pose their greatest threat to profitability
- 48 percent cited coding and documentation changes as hurting their future profitability the most, with 44 percent blaming ICD-10 in particular
- 59 percent spend at least one day per week on paperwork instead of treating patients
- 48 percent reported they lack the resources to accommodate an influx of patients upon implementation of the Affordable Care Act
- 9 percent were "very confident" in their current process for getting paid
While these statistics are not particularly surprising, respondents shared more optimism about the future of private practices than much recent industry coverage has indicated, according to a statement from CareCloud. In particular, of the 2,094 respondents who own their own practice, only 11 percent are "actively" looking to sell, while 10 percent said profit challenges have forced them to do so already. Nearly 60 percent said they are not looking to sell their practices at all.
To learn more:
- read the statement from CareCloud
- access the report