Healthcare's future looks 'bureaucratic, costly,' some docs say

Doctors may be feeling optimistic about finally repealing the Medicare sustainable growth-rate formula, but there's not much else for them to feel optimistic about in 2014, according to the 2014 Watch List released by the Physicians Foundation.

“While the promise of a better future for healthcare remains, the current path is leading us toward a more monopolistic, bureaucratic and costly healthcare system,” Lou Goodman, Physicians Foundation president and Texas Medical Association executive vice president and CEO, said in a news release. “It is critical for policymakers to more regularly seek the counsel of physicians as they begin to implement health reform, since they are the true voice in determining the future of patient care.”

For the Watch List, the foundation identified five issues that it said would affect the ability and capacity of physicians to deliver high quality, professional and compassionate care: A trend from consolidation to monopolization; growing regulatory burdens; insurance-related confusion; health information technology shortfalls; and continued government stalemates—if not over the SGR, then over tort reform and other potential obstacles to government-funded reimbursements.

The foundation cited monopolization concerns involving healthcare systems and insurance companies that often compel small practices to forgo their independence. Insurance-related concerns involve both problems linked to technical troubles with insurance exchanges as well as new collection duties that come with treating newly covered patients who aren't accustomed to paying higher copays and deductibles. On health IT, the lack of interoperability was cited as a key barrier to sharing information and creating the efficiencies that IT advocates promote.

Founded in 2003 with settlement funds from a class-action lawsuit by 22 medical societies against third-party payers, the Physicians Foundation has awarded $31 million in grants for physician leadership training, health information technology and other healthcare-improvement issues.

Follow Andis Robeznieks on Twitter: @MHARobeznieks