The American Medical Association (AMA) recently launched a survey designed to provide insight into physician practice costs nationwide, with the goal of supporting physician payment advocacy. The AAFP, along with more than 170 other medical professional groups, has signed on to the effort and is encouraging members to participate if contacted.
The Physician Practice Information (PPI) Survey, which is being conducted by Mathematica, seeks to collect representative data on practice expenses and hours spent in direct patient care from a sample of about 10,800 practices representing more than 90,000 physicians, plus other qualified health care professionals, across the country. Mathematica will use various datasets to identify a representative mix of practices at the specialty level, and sampling methods will take practice size, specialty, ownership, and site-of-service into account.
The data, which will be collected from July 2023 through April 2024, will be shared with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and used to update the Medicare Economic Index (MEI) and the Resource Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS).
This update is critical, given that the Medicare physician payment schedule maintained by CMS and used by many other payers currently relies on 2006 cost information to develop practice expense relative values, the MEI, and resulting physician payments. Sweeping changes that have taken place subsequently in both the U.S. economy and the health care system (e.g., inflation and widespread adoption of electronic health records [EHRs]) mean practice expense payments no longer accurately reflect the relative resources typically required to provide physician services.
Practice financial experts in participating practices will be asked to complete an online financial information survey. In addition, because the number of direct patient care hours is a critical component of Medicare’s payment methodology, thousands of individual physicians also will receive a short patient care hours survey from either their practice directly or from Mathematica. At the conclusion of the PPI survey, each participating practice will receive an individualized report.
An AMA announcement about the project stresses the importance of participating: "The input from physician practices and individual physicians that are randomly selected to participate in this study is critical for its success. Participation will ensure that practice expenses and patient care hours are accurately reflected."
