With looming reimbursement cuts a perpetual end-of-year drama, more physicians are foregoing insurance plans altogether and going into the ‘concierge medicine’ business.
But as an article on Fierce EMR reports, some are blaming this trend on a growing shortage of physicians.
In Vermont, one of a few states considering a single-payer system, the number of primary care physicians is becoming evident. Although the number of concierge practitioners is small – on the order of a few thousand – this has doubled in the past two years.
Doctors who are dropping Medicare are reporting less stress and more professional satisfaction, but apparently this is leading to many patients who can’t afford the cash-pay model to be dropped by their doctors.