While skepticism of healthcare reform continues to pervade the physician workforce, physicians gave slightly better ratings of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act this year than last, according to a recent survey by The Medicus Firm.
The Medicus Firm's annual Physician Practice Preference Survey analyzed responses from 2,272 physicians and advanced practice providers from 19 specialties in 2014 to understand trends and attitudes of physicians regarding the PPACA.
When asked to give the PPACA an overall grade, 8.6 percent of responding physicians gave the law an A, up from 6.3 percent last year. Additionally, the number of physicians giving the PPACA a failing grade decreased significantly from 30.2 percent in 2013 to 22.35 percent this year.
Further findings from the survey are listed below.
- When asked to describe their opinion of the PPACA today as compared to their opinion in 2010, 33.3 percent of practicing physicians said their opinion has not changed over the time period. Another 27.1 percent of physicians said their opinion of the PPACA is significantly less favorable today, while 5.6 percent reported significantly more favorable opinions.
- When asked to rate the PPACA on certain objectives, most physicians gave the category "improving access to healthcare" an A (23.4 percent), up from 11.8 percent last year. Only 13.68 percent of respondents failed the PPACA in this category, down from 23.6 percent of physicians who gave it an F last year.
- The objective that earned the lowest rating by physicians this year was "improving efficiency of healthcare," though this category showed some improvement from last year. This category was given an F by 29.73 percent of physicians, down from 35.4 percent last year.
- About 7 percent of physicians gave the PPACA an A for "improving efficiency of healthcare," a slight improvement from 5.6 percent last year.
- Additionally, 14.6 percent of physicians cite changes stemming from healthcare reform as a primary factor contributing to limitations on their income.