Survey: Half of practices spend $40K per physician to comply with federal regs

Editor's Note

A new Medical Group Management Association survey of 750 physician group practices finds that nearly half spend more than $40,000 per physician each year to comply with federal regulations, the August 10 FierceHealthcare reports.

Respondents say the most burdensome regulation is Medicare’s new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) program, with 82% finding it “very” or “extremely” burdensome, and 80% saying its clinical relevance to patient care is their top concern.

Other burdensome regulatory issues include:

• lack of electronic attachment standards for claims and prior authorizations (74%)
• payer audits and appeals (69%)
• lack of electronic health record interoperability (68%)
• payer use of virtual credit cards (59%).

One respondent wrote, “Most of what we do to meet requirements is busy work that has no real impact on patient care,” according to the report.

Physician practices are racking up dollars trying to comply with new and existing federal regulations, according to a new Medical Group Management Association survey. Nearly half of the 750 group practices surveyed said they spend more than $40,000 per full-time physician each year, directly or indirectly, to comply with federal regulations.