The Impact of Time and Money on The Physician – Patient Relationship

by Clive Riddle, October 6, 2017 The “physician-patient relationship remains strong but cost may challenge its future,” is the headline takeaway offered by The Physicians Foundation, who just released findings from their second biennial patient survey. Their 45-report discuss analyzes survey responses from a nationally representative sample of 1,747 adults, ages 27-75, who had two visits with the same doctor in the past year. We are told “89 percent of consumers are fearful that the rising cost of healthcare will adversely impact them in the future. In particular, over half (56 percent) of patients say the cost of prescription drugs and pharmaceuticals directly contributes to rising healthcare costs. In fact, because of cost, 25 percent of patients surveyed said they did not fill a prescription and 19 percent have skipped doses of their medicine…..Fifty seven percent of healthcare consumers feel they are one sickness away from being in serious financial trouble. And 75 percent of consumers are concerned with their ability to pay for medical treatment if they were to get sick or injured, an increase from the first survey issued in 2016 when 62 percent were concerned.” What do consumers think is driving increased costs? The Foundation says “eighty-eight percent of consumers look to pharma companies and the way they price drugs as the main reason for rising healthcare costs. Other factors that consumers feel contribute to rising healthcare costs include absence of free markets (24 percent) and fraud (23 percent).” 33% of consumers say they have debt because of medical costs, with 30% of those with debt owing $5,000 or more. Time is the other major concern. The Foundation states that “only 11 percent of patients and 14 percent of physicians report that they have all the time they need together. This signals a significant challenge to providing high quality care, especially when 90 percent of patients feel the most essential element of a quality healthcare system is a solid physician-patient relationship.” The Foundation goes on to report that “65 percent of patients feel that time is always or often limited with the physician, however only half of physicians feel similarly. Yet the same number of patients (53 percent) and physicians (52 percent) are of a common mindset in terms of workload – believing physicians to be at full capacity.”  But despite the pressures from time and money, 95% of patients said they were satisfied with their overall primary doctor relationship, including 64% who said they were very satisfied. 5% said they think about changing their primary doctor all the time, and 15% said they thought about that often.