Can Physician Practices Remain Profitable?

Report identifies a confluence of challenges that make staying profitable increasingly difficult for physician practices today.

Report identifies a confluence of challenges that make staying profitable increasingly difficult for physician practices today.

Physicians are almost two-thirds more likely to foresee a negative profitability trend, rather than a positive one, in the year ahead according to recent research report by cloud-based health technology provider, CareCloudand QuantiaMD, online and collaboration physician platform. The findings gathered through online surveys and related discussion groups report an overall downtrend in profitability among US physician practices with reform requirements as the leading source of financial burden.

Declining reimbursements, rising costs, ACA, coding/documentation changes including ICD-10, and EHR adoption were identified as having the most negative impact on practice profitability. Despite these challenges, the report concludes that most physician practice owners want to stay independent. Physicians also identified improved billing and technology as the greatest keys to improving the financial performance of their practices.

Background

 The Practice Profitability Index (PPI) was created to provide a voice to US physicians practices about issues that impact their financial performance and operational health. 5,012 physicians contributed their insights to the PPI during April of 2013 and, functions as a barometer for the operational and financial health of private practices in 2013. The 2013 report identified a confluence of challenges that make staying profitable increasingly difficult for physician practices today.

Key report findings include:

• 1-in-3 physicians see overall profitability trending downward in 2013
• 65% say declining reimbursements are the greatest threat to profitability
• 59% spend at least one day per week on paperwork instead of treating patients
• 48% say they lack the resources to accept any of the 30 million new patients from the ACA
• Only 9% are very confident in their current processes for getting paid
• Plus, profitability data is broken down by state, specialty and more…

Some of key data points in the report have been highlighted in the infographic visualization shown below: