Keith Reynolds 00:00:00 This is an off the chart special bulletin. Welcome to and off the chart with Medical economics special bulletin. I'm your host, Keith Reynolds. And today we feature something a little different. I'll be sitting down with Medical Economics editorial director Chris Mazzolini to discuss the 95th Physician Report. It's one of the longest running physician surveys in the country, and every year brings new insight into the realities of the business of health care. So, hi Chris. it's a pleasure to have you here today.

Chris Mazzolini 00:01:04 Thank you. Keith. This is my favorite podcast.

Keith Reynolds 00:01:07 I'm very glad. I'm very glad as you're the one that keeps it running. so tell me, what is this, physician report I keep hearing about?

Chris Mazzolini 00:01:16 Yeah, I'm glad you asked. So the physician report is. It's an annual survey that we do to sort of gauge the state of doctors in the United States, the the how the medical profession is faring, for a variety of, of, you know, topic areas. we're looking at, you know, how much they're getting paid.

Chris Mazzolini 00:01:36 We're looking at the financial state of their practice, the challenges that they're experiencing. we ask them about, you know, how things have gone since Covid 19, how much they're using telehealth. It goes on and on. heck, we and I'll I'll talk about this a little bit later. But, you know, we asked them, you know, would they recommend their children go into medicine, which is always kind of a spicy answer. So we've been doing this survey for 95 years now. So it's got to be one of the longest running, surveys like this of physicians in the country. I don't know if that's actually true, but it's got to be close. and we do this, every year or so. The data that we'll be talking about during this, is actually for the calendar year of 2023. So just, you know, anyone listening, keep that in mind, as you hear about this, this report.

Keith Reynolds 00:02:27 So, yeah, you you mentioned the data. so what are some of the big the big findings this year?

Chris Mazzolini 00:02:33 Yeah.

Chris Mazzolini 00:02:34 So I'll just mention a few and then I'll share later where they can go, to learn more about and view all of the survey data. So the some good news and some bad news. The good news is, is that salaries are up for the primary care physician specialties. So we're talking family practice, internal medicine, ob gyn, pediatrics, cardiology. All the ones that are sort of have that relationship. bent to the, there you know, patient physician relationships. So their salaries are up about 4% in 2023 compared to 2022. some bad news. practice, finances continue to struggle. the data actually shows, based on our survey respondents, that, it was the worst year for practice financial performance since the Covid year in 2020. And that was a really bad year. for practices, as you know, they weren't seeing patients in person at all. it's largely due to rising costs, inflation. We've been hearing a lot about that. just in the general media, salaries for, you know, staff members, like I said, general price increases and, you know, declining reimbursement rates, particularly Medicare has been sort of putting the squeeze on practices for the last few years.

Chris Mazzolini 00:03:50 And, you know, one other thing on the Covid note is, you know, I mentioned earlier that we asked how the practices have done since the Covid 19 pandemic. And, you know, we kind of think of the pandemic as over and done. It's like ancient history. You know, it's 2020. It feels might as well being 100 years ago. but for the practices there are still reeling from the huge sort of financial shock that the pandemic was. we one of the the notes I wrote it down here is that 44% of practices that we surveyed told us that they're worse off today than they were before Covid. So, I mean, that's a huge number that still is basically digging out of a hole from 2020. So, I would say that those are some of the main highlights, from this year's data that they really stuck out to me.

Keith Reynolds 00:04:42 So are you got any interesting trends that you've noticed over the past couple of years?

Chris Mazzolini 00:04:47 Yeah. So, I guess I guess the first thing and I always say this whenever people ask about comparisons between the years is that, you know, any trend data of comparing, like, you know, what happened one year to another year is all purely anecdotal, because, you know, different people every year are taking our survey.

Chris Mazzolini 00:05:05 You know, it's it's sort of an apples and oranges comparison. So that being said, I do think you can sort of detect the vibes, especially when you look over a long enough, you know, span where you can definitely see some, some trends that that carry over, you know, from one year in the past into, you know, the current iteration of the survey. So, you know, I've been working personally on this survey for, for, for ten years. And like you said, I will work on it for another millennia after this. the one that's really kind of serious note, the one that's really surprised me is how stubborn the gender pay gap between men and women has been. So I looked up, you know, as I was prepping for this, I looked up, you know, what the gender pay gap was in 2013, which was the first year I worked on this survey, and it was 85,000. Obviously, it's an eye popping number. So what that's saying is that, in 2013, that male physicians, on average made 85,000 more than women physicians, which, you know, is it.

Chris Mazzolini 00:06:04 That's that's something. Our latest survey. The gap was 55,000. So like there has been progress. But like especially with how many women are now becoming physicians, especially in the primary care fields, it just it's it's still wild to me that that that number is so is such a huge gap. So that's one. another one I mentioned at the top about how, you know, we ask physicians whether they would recommend their child go into medicine. So ten years ago, I look back at this one, two and ten years ago, the vast majority, it was like, you know, over 60% said, yes, they would definitely recommend to go into medicine and go into the same specialty. this year, only about a third said that they would recommend their child go into into medicine. And, you know, we've kind of plumbed into this data in the past and we've noticed it really varies by specialty. There's some specialties I think anesthesiology geology was one of those where, you know, 90% said so, like some specialties have these very high rates of, oh, yeah, it would be great if my child followed me into the medical field while other ones and it's part primarily the primary care fields family medicine, pediatrics and internal medicine, where the doctors are telling us that, no, you know, I, I don't know if I would recommend they follow into my footsteps that closely, which is really, you know, surprising.

Chris Mazzolini 00:07:33 I mean, it is and it is. And when you think about the challenges that that the doctors, you know, who read medical economics and who might be listening to this are dealing with from all the red tape, the prior authorizations, the payor contract stuff, quality metrics, all of the stuff that they have to deal with, you know, plus the fact that, you know, it's becoming more challenging to run a private practice and not, you know, sell out to a hospital system or a private equity firm. So, you know so it's like really surprising to hear that. But at the same time, when you start thinking about, you know, the kind of things that, you know, Keith were covering on a regular basis at medical economics that, you know, maybe it's not a surprising. It's a shame. And, you know, I think, you know, we're trying to do our part as a publication to, you know, give doctors good advice to make being a physician easier than maybe it's been in the last, you know, decade or so.

Chris Mazzolini 00:08:25 and we'll continue fighting that good fight. but yeah, I think those are some of the big the trends that I've noticed.

Keith Reynolds 00:08:31 Work in our listeners, run into the results of this survey.

Chris Mazzolini 00:08:35 Yeah. So the the full survey went live, in July, late July, I think, on medical economics.com. And we'll put a link in the show notes just so that you can, anyone can click it and view the, the data. I will note that we do require free registration to view the get full access to all the data, which, you know, take just a moment and I recommend it. I mean, it's like 85 slides of just, you know, pure data goodness about what's going on in the medical profession. So, so that's one way. Another way is we actually have a live webinar event scheduled for September 12th. That's our live virtual practice academy learning event. during that event, where we're going to have four different sessions covering a bunch of useful information for doctors, some malpractice defense tips, some coding, reimbursement, stuff.

Chris Mazzolini 00:09:29 And in addition to those things, I will be doing a short, sort of session where I'm going over the results of the physician report in more detail. and so we'll also include a link to register to that event, in the show notes. And that again is also free registration. So, yeah, those are the probably the best ways to, to get your hands around this data, which I highly recommend.

Keith Reynolds 00:09:53 And that's if you have not had the honor of attending a Christopher Zeleny seminar. buckle in, folks. It's a sight to behold. and, Yeah. If you thought this was uncomfortable, check it out. We're ready.

Chris Mazzolini 00:10:08 To rock and roll.

Speaker 3 00:10:09 Keith.

Keith Reynolds 00:10:10 definitely. All righty. Chris. It's a pleasure to talk to you, as always. And, thanks for coming.

Chris Mazzolini 00:10:15 Yeah. Thanks very much. Appreciate it.

Keith Reynolds 00:10:18 Again. That was medical economics editorial director Chris Maslin discussing the 95th Physician Report. If you look in the show notes, you'll see a link to the full report, as well as a link to sign up for the webinar you mentioned.

Keith Reynolds 00:10:30 My name is Keith Reynolds, and on behalf of the whole medical economics team, I'd like to thank you for listening and ask that you please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. If you'd like a digest of the best stories Medical Economics publishes delivered straight to your email six days a week, subscribe to our newsletter at Medical economics.com. Thank you and have a great holiday.