Primary Care: The Impact of Burnout and Staffing Shortages on Billing

Primary care practices nationwide are facing unprecedented levels of burnout and staffing shortages. Concerns about staffing shortages in the primary care space first emerged more than two decades ago in the year 2000, and little has been done to assuage these concerns over the years. These shortages and record levels of burnout increased during the pandemic, and The Association of American Medical Colleges is predicting massive shortages, projecting a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036.

Challenges in Primary Care

Why are there such major staffing shortages in primary care? Researchers are attributing this to a variety of factors, such as:

1. An aging population: The World Health Organization (WHO) calculated that between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world's population over 60 years will nearly double from 12% to 22%. As the general population ages, primary care physicians are seeing more advanced medical needs. This boils down to simply more patients needing to see more doctors, so practices need to either hire additional providers or have their providers work additional hours — a result that can be both costly and tough on providers.
2. A rise in chronic conditions: According to a study from Front Public Health, “of the population 50 years and older, the number with at least one chronic disease is estimated to increase by 99.5% from 71.522 million in 2020 to 142.66 million by 2050.” Chronic conditions continue to rise as the population ages, which is significantly impacting provider workload and can lead to burnout.
3. Cost pressures: On average, primary care providers are seeing low reimbursement rates from payers for care they provide. This especially varies across different states. In Rhode Island, for example, physicians are reimbursed almost $6 less for each new patient visit than in Boston. Many hospitals are taking steps to shield their staff and ensure that their providers are not impacted by the lower reimbursements, a task that’s proving to be incredibly costly. One hospital in Rhode Island calculated that for each primary care provider they employed in 2023, they lost approximately $280,000 — this resulted in a total loss of $4 million in the year.

Technology Drives Speed to Cash and Revenue Cycle Efficiency

Primary care providers are seeing more patients than ever, but are not seeing the revenue increase that should accompany additional new business. These teams need a way to maximize revenue and drive speed to cash, without increasing their workload.

Adonis Intelligence is purpose-built for healthcare. The platform’s AI-driven alerts and recommendations, actionable insights, and billing automations help revenue cycle teams save time, mitigate denials, and drive speed-to-cash.

With Adonis Intelligence, primary care practices are:

1. Getting paid faster, by predicting and mitigating denials
2. Collecting more revenue, through underpayments detection and resolution
3. Saving time, by intelligently identifying and addressing/actioning root cause issues
4. Staying ahead, through tracking and adapting to evolving payer policies

Learn more about how Adonis Intelligence can make a difference at your primary care practice, here.