Burdens and Burnout: The Toll of Practice Management
A recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine put a price tag of $4.6B per year on physician burnout. While this massive cost burdens the US health system, the personal toll on physicians is also significant.
Many physicians point to administrative burdens as a major contributing factor to career burnout. Physicians spend almost 25% of their time on non-clinical paperwork and 62% admit to feeling pessimistic about the future of medicine according to the Merritt Hawkins 2018 Survey of American Physicians. Still, over 70% of physicians would make the same career choice if starting over. Practicing medicine isn’t the problem. The problem is managing the practice and all of its associated regulatory burdens.
Source: Merritt Hawkins 2018 Survey of American Physicians
Alphabet Soup of Tasks
HR, IT, EHR, MACRA/MIPS and HIPAA. The list of tasks required to keep a medical practice up, running, and compliant goes on and on. In solo and small group practices, many of these tasks fall to the physician.
The time physicians spend troubleshooting computer problems, dealing with staff issues, and other administrative tasks, adds up. After one Tennessee-based dermatologist affiliated with QualDerm, his capacity to see patients increased by 10-15%. In addition to handling the day-to-day practice management tasks, QualDerm helped the practice expand its services by recruiting a Fellowship-trained Mohs surgeon and another general dermatologist to join the practice.
Time and Expertise
Practice management is becoming more complex. Negotiating with payors (who themselves are getting larger and more powerful), managing employee benefits, integrating electronic health records and capturing quality data each requires an abundance of time and expertise.
As part of a larger, quality-driven network, QualDerm-affiliated practices have access to a team of business professionals who are dedicated to helping them succeed. For example, in North Carolina, QualDerm negotiated a 7% reimbursement increase with the region’s largest payor. The QualDerm IT department worked together with affiliated practices in Ohio and North Carolina to meet the MACRA reporting requirements, which resulted in the practices earning reimbursement bonuses. What’s more, practices that are part of the QualDerm network can offer their staffs a wide array of employee benefits, such as a choice of health plans and a 401(k), all of which are managed by the QualDerm management team as their partner.
Learn more about how QualDerm can help you alleviate the burdens of practice management.
Contact us to find out more about partnership opportunities or to discuss selling your practice.