Friday, July 13, 2012

Doctors Bowing Out

Dr. Jordan Grumet describes how, "Doctors are quietly and incrementally bowing out".

An excerpt:
Physicians are looking for a way out. They are becoming businessman, social media entrepreneurs and commentators, writers, reformers, and career coaches. They are retiring early and cutting their hours. I spend less time in the clinic than ever before. Each year I replace some of my office time with non clinical revenue generating activities. The joy of patient care is being overshadowed by regulation. We are quietly and incrementally bowing out...
In the end, it will be American patients who suffer as a result.  

Related: This recent Daily Caller piece notes that, "83 percent of doctors have considered quitting over Obamacare".

Moreover, CNN reports that independent solo physicians are dying breed

Economic and political pressures are going to drive the remaining doctors into large group practices (or to become hospital employees), where their practice patterns can be more easily tracked by regulators via mandatory electronic medical records.  This will likely also accelerate the trend of some doctors bowing out of the new system.