10% of Physicians May Adopt Direct Pay Practices, Drop Medicare Coverage

Tags: billing | concierge | direct pay | healthcare practice | insurance | Medicare | Merritt Hawkins | sustainable growth formula | The Physicians Foundation

About 10 percent of healthcare practice owners plan on converting from Medicare providers to concierge or direct pay practices in the next three years, according to Forbes.

Of the 14,000 physicians surveyed by Merritt Hawkins for The Physicians Foundation, 6.8 percent of physicians plan to stop taking insurance and instead opt for direct primary care.

Experts attribute the trend to uncertainty with Medicare payments and the problematic sustainable growth formula, according to the report.

About 20 percent of physicians are already restricting the number of Medicare patients they will accept.

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