Here are five key findings from the survey.
1. Overall, physicians’ outlook on profitability has improved in the last year, with positive perspectives rising from 19 percent to 24 percent. However, the positive perspective is still outweighed by the negative, which holds 31 percent of physician practices. There is indication of stabilization, as neutral profitability perspectives increased from 30 percent to 35 percent this past year.
2. Among seven key challenges to practice profitability, three were related to health IT. Fifty-two percent of survey respondents said the transition to ICD-10 was a challenge to profitability, 35 percent said EHR and meaningful use was a challenge and 16 percent said patient privacy and information security requirements presented a challenge. Respondents were allowed to select more than one answer. The top two challenges were declining reimbursement (62 percent) and rising costs (55 percent).
3. When asked what areas physician practices are targeting to improve operational performance, 33 percent indicated technology, the third most commonly named area. The report suggests physicians are still considering replacing old technology for newer systems, with 20 percent of physicians indicating plans to replace their practice management system or EHR in the coming year.
4. The most common reason physicians are replacing their IT systems is that the current ones don’t integrate with other technologies (39 percent). Physicians also reported their current solutions are hard to use and ineffective (37 percent), are not cost-effective (33 percent), are not ready for ICD-10 or meaningful use (27 percent) or the vendor is not innovating on the current solution (20 percent).
5. “This year’s physician profitability index indicates a potential, albeit slow, shift in sentiment,” according to the report. “The share of physicians looking ahead with positive or flat profitability expectations is growing, while the share convinced of a downward path is declining.”
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