Physician providers continue to fall on hard times.

From the Tennassean comes a real life breakdown of what many physician providers are facing in today's healthcare environment. In a nut shell they are fighting for their own survival. Who would ever have expected physician providers on the cusp of financial ruin years ago. With today's CMS reimbursement rates, climbing numbers of uninsured patients, and increasing operating expenses physicians are being forced to look at alternatives to keep their heads above water. This is a real issue that needs to be mitigated in healthcare. The more physicians that fold up their practice and go on to other business ventures the less providers there will be for the patient population at large. If you wonder why your provider is not always in a good mood or looks chronically exhausted this why.

The ongoing financial crisis that healthcare is experiencing is affecting everyone, most of all those that provide services. Physicians, PAs, Nurse Practitioners, and hospitals are all feeling the squeeze these days. If providing organizations have to limit the amount of resources to provide care for patients to keep their heads above water the patients are going to end up getting the short end of the stick. In an era of fiscal hardship that continues to worsen, healthcare can not continue to fight a two front war.

On one side the war on reimbursement rates with third party payers, the other front being quality care, transparency, medical error mitigation etc. If healthcare organizations are to focus on improving the quality of care so they can be the best institutions they can possibly be, healthcare leaders can not be distracted by by financial hardship. We can't have our cake and eat it too in this type of battle. If this country is to decrease the cost of healthcare it must be done on the front end and not through restrictions of reimbursement.