The Need For Ongoing Surveys About Physician Practice Costs

• Published in: Health Affairs Vol. 35; no. 9; pp. 1647 - 1650
• Main Author: Berk, Marc L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE 01.09.2016
• Subjects: Collection; Compensation; Cost Savings; Cost-Benefit Analysis; Costs; Data collection; Data quality; Electronic health records; Estimates; Female; Health care expenditures; Health Care Surveys; Health Expenditures; Humans; Male; Medicaid; Medical practices; Medicare; Needs Assessment; Pensions; Physicians; Polls & surveys; Practice Management, Medical - economics; Practice Patterns, Physicians' - economics; Primary care; Public health; Quality; Quality Assurance, Health Care; Reimbursement; Reimbursement, Incentive - economics; Response rates; Retirement; Satisfaction; Surveys and Questionnaires; Training; United States; United States > US; Chicago Illinois; surveys; Physician Payment; physicians
• ISSN: 0278-2715; 2694-233X; 1544-5208; 2694-233X
• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2016.0389

Physicians continue to be the subject of many survey efforts asking them about a wide range of issues including training, retirement plans, satisfaction with practice, practice organization, and practice costs. The resources dedicated to the collection of different types of data have changed over time. Collection efforts have both expanded and contracted. Here I discuss this phenomenon for several types of physician surveys, with particular focus on the reduction in ongoing survey efforts about physician practice costs. The diminution of efforts to collect information about these costs represents an important challenge since the lack of timely, high-quality data could impair the correct calculation of reimbursement rates.