Primary Care Physicians

Who's looking after doctor?

America spends half what other developed countries spend on primary care compared to other areas of healthcare. Yet, the number of primary healthcare consultations has dropped by 51% in the United States, 50% in Belgium, 39% in Germany, 30% in England, and 25% in France.

With the announcement of Amazon acquiring OneMedical Group's parent company for an estimated $3.9 billion, it may feel like primary care is the next hot market among U.S. retailers who are placing big bets on healthcare.

However, we must not forget the crisis among primary care physicians who are at the center of this all and which tech must ultimately build for.

The U.S. is expected to be short 45,000 physicians by 2030 and work-related burnout is a significant driver of costs . Nearly one billion dollars in annual excess healthcare expenditures are due to turnover of primary care physicians. And we know that access to high-quality primary health care has been shown to improve health equity and health outcomes. A drop in primary care physicians will have altering affects on all health equity efforts.

Overall, researchers have determined that 65% of primary care services could be handled by others and the pending physician shortage will be one major driving force for change in care models. New care models with a heightened focus on specific populations will increasingly redefine the primary care space. And digital health companies are primed to arm traditional providers with data integration and care coordination tools.

Critics have warned that efforts to extract "value" from primary care reveal fundamental misunderstandings of its purpose. The fear is that attempts to apply processes and technology designed for sub-specialty care to primary care will prove insufficient. And attempts to make interactions more "efficient" with technology and processes superimpose artificiality.

Still, physician use of digital health tools has doubled since 2016 with nearly 30% of doctors adopting digital health technology, up from 20% in 2016.

With the Department of Health and Human Services pushing to build a "federal foundation" for primary care, there are strong tailwinds sending pretty clear signals of what's to come.

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In the News

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Primary care physician turnover leads to almost $980M in excess healthcare costs

Healthcare Finance

CVS Health plans to open primary care doctor offices

Consumer Affairs

Primary care doctors would need more than 24 hours per day to provide recommended care

Medical Xpress

It would take a primary care physician 26.7 hours per day to see an average number of patients, a new study finds. The study found that team-based care reduced the time a physician needed to deliver care to 9.3 hours/day by including all types of care as well as administrative tasks. The researchers determined that 65% of services could be handled by other team members, such as dietitians or nutritionists.

HHS offering $1M to strengthen link between primary care and health equity

Healthcare Finance

Retailers, payers and startups could capture 30% of primary care market by 2030: report 

Fierce Healthcare

Primary care doctors are getting harder to find

Concord Monitor