Doctors under Obamacare | Impact of Affordable Care Act

A lot has been written and said about the?Affordable Care Act, which is beginning to come into full force. But a much ignored effect is that on the medical profession. Reaction is mixed among doctors and it depends on where in the profession and where in the country a doctor is. This is inevitable given that affordable care is the biggest revolution to hit American public health ever. Doctors can look forward to (or even dread)?

?an exceptional and permanent explosion in patient numbers.?Medical insurers are being compelled to take on clients with existing medical conditions, and family members under 26 years old. It means the floodgates have opened. This will bring many more patients into their clinics to consult a front line doctor. Additionally, quite a few states will be increasing their Medicaid registers.

This in turn will also add to the swelling tide of patients that has to be spread over a finite number of doctors. There will be an estimated shortfall of physicians nationwide of some 90 thousand over the next 8 years. The only alternatives in that time are extended.

?some doctors pay may well decline. Contrary to the economic law of supply and demand, the increased workload may not actually push doctors pay up. A provision under ?Obamacare? is that nearly $178 billion will but removed from medicare budgets. Most it is planned will come from smaller remuneration, preventable fraud and current waste within the overall healthcare system.

Without doubt there are many productivity improvements and cost reductions to be had from a total review of healthcare, especially in reducing duplication of expensive testing but doctors are concerned because it is the ?Independent Payment Advisory Board? that will be doing the reviewing.

?computerization of medical records. In the long-term this will mean a great step forward in standardization and productivity, but in the short-term some chaos is inevitable. To properly transition to a new record system, medical practices will need to ?cancel? patients for some time, possibly months, as they learn and become familiar with the new technology. There will be a backlog of patients. And then there is the cost, which may be significant if practices have to hire new specialist staff.

?reduced consultation times.?All of the above effects will almost certainly mean that doctors will have less time to spend on face to face consultations with patients. The current average of 7 minutes is under threat. Patients will have fewer of their concerns addressed and doctors are more likely to miss important diagnostic clues. It is foreseeable that more unnecessary tests will be done as an alternative to a time-consuming full verbal patient history.

?be more integrated with all local health providers. More than ever doctors will need to work closely with hospitals, patients and their carers. The single ?bundled? fee arrangements makes it crucial that everyone is aware of what tests and assessments are conducted before and after every individual consultation, so as to coordinate service to patients without duplication or omission.

?changing patient relationships. Medical insurers are consolidating practices and linking them to specific hospitals. Patient choices are being switched and restricted so that many may not have the doctor of their choice. The next two years will be very trying ones throughout the healthcare sector.

Source: http://www.jarretmorrow.com/doctors-under-obamacare/

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