The results of a recent Florida Medical Association (FMA) survey reveal that reducing burdensome regulations, increasing payment for physician services and bringing more fairness to the medical liability system are the top concerns of the state’s physicians. They are also adjusting to a rapidly changing practice landscape in the wake of the Affordable Care Act.
Those are among the findings of the FMA’s Business of Medicine Quarterly Index Survey, which was conducted in July to identify the Florida doctors’ biggest concerns as well as the trends that are shaping medical practice. The results are based on the responses of 560 physicians – FMA members and non-members – who represent the spectrum of specialties, practice sizes and types, and practice experience.
When asked what could be done at the state level to help them practice medicine, respondents identified reducing burdensome regulations (30.34 percent), increasing payment for physician services (22.47 percent) and bringing more fairness to the medical liability system (16.85 percent) as the top three issues. One physician said, “Sometimes all the rules and regulations get to be just too much to cope with.”
FMA Executive Vice President Timothy J. Stapleton noted that the FMA’s efforts on behalf of Florida physicians encompass all of the issues that are highlighted in the survey.
“The FMA provides physicians with the resources they need to successfully adapt to the modern health-care landscape and focus on patient care, not regulatory and administrative obstacles,” Stapleton said. “These results will help us further focus our advocacy so that we can do even more to help Florida physicians practice medicine.”
Those who took the survey represent dozens of medical and surgical specialties and reflect the diversity of Florida’s physician workforce:
- 64.64 percent are FMA members.
- The majority of respondents are practice owners, partners or associates (57.46 percent), but a significant percentage of doctors now work for hospitals, medical groups or other entities such as health systems (29.6 percent).
- Most respondents have been in practice either for more than 30 years (31.91 percent) or 20 to 30 years (also 31.91 percent). However, 13.82 percent have been in practice from fewer than five years to 10 years.
- The number of physicians employed by respondents’ practices/groups/facilities ranges from one to 3,000.
- 77.69 percent of respondents are male and 22.31 percent are female.
While 50.5 percent of respondents plan to continue working as normal in the next one to three years, the rest say that they will pursue options that could have an impact on Floridians’ access to care:
- Cutting back hours: 10 percent
- Retiring: 7 percent
- Switching to a “concierge” practice: 2.5 percent
- Seeking hospital employment: 2.25 percent
- Cutting back on patients seen: 1.25 percent
- Closing their practices to new patients: 1 percent
Other key findings:
- 69.77 percent have implemented electronic medical records.
- More than a quarter of physicians say that EMRs have improved the quality of care (25.71 percent). Another 10 percent of respondents say that EMRs have not improved quality of care but anticipate that they will eventually.
- 40.41 percent of practices and physician employers are embracing or looking into alternative models such as Accountable Care Organizations and medical homes.
To view additional findings from the FMA’s Business of Medicine Quarterly Index Survey, click here.
