Administrative burdens driving practices out of Medicaid

The time and effort spent on reporting quality measure data has been a major drain on healthcare practices across America. Medicaid in particular has reported that an increasing number of providers have been leaving the program because of the excessive administrative workload.

In 2015, 22% of Florida practices that left Medicaid said it was due to paperwork and billing requirements. In 2013, only 12% of practices left for this reason.  While there isn’t any national data on Medicaid participation, CMS reports that there are 19,543 physicians not participating in Medicare in 2016, compared to 3,700 in 2009. 

“There's no question that [reporting], which can take away a physician's attention and time that might otherwise be spent directly interacting with patients, has increased in recent years,” said Andrew Shin, Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare senior director told Modern Healthcare. “Medicare and Medicaid have played an important role in that.”

One study published in Health Affairs found that 98 days and $15.4 billion is lost annually to reporting quality metrics. The burdens of quality reporting have caused some practices to hiring third-party companies, such as AxisPoint Health and Total Medical Management, to manage their quality reporting for them. Others have invested in new IT software and electronic health record (EHR) advancements to streamline the process.