Half of Doctors Want to Quit Medicine Over Insurance Frustrations

A new study finds that nearly nine in 10 doctors believe barriers set by insurance plans have created worse conditions for their patients.

Researchers with Aimed Alliance, a non-profit that seeks to protect and enhance the rights of health care consumers and providers, say that doctors are so frustrated by challenges with insurers that two-thirds would recommend against pursuing a career in medicine and nearly half (48 percent) are considering a career change.

The organization polled 600 physicians in the U.S. practicing either family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, or obstetrics/gynecology.

Researchers found that physicians said they believe health insurance companies are putting patients at risk with policies such as prior authorizations ahead of filling prescriptions. In fact, 87 percent of doctors say patients’ conditions have grown worse because of such red-tape regulations, and 83 percent worry the patients will suffer prolonged pain as a result.

Prior authorizations are especially bothersome for doctors. More than nine in 10 (91 percent) of those surveyed think the policy delays necessary care for patients. Similarly, the same number of doctors agree insurers engage in “non-medical switching,” which forces patients to take less costly—but potentially less effective —medicines.

Fifty-five percent of doctors said the thing they would most like to see change is insurers’ ability to override the professional judgment of physicians.

Source: Study Finds