Why are rural areas losing independent healthcare providers?
A myriad of challenges, such as the economics of reimbursement, burnout and growing administrative burdens, add to the complications of running an independent medical practice by Intelliworx Rural areas have lost 2,500 independent physicians during a five-year period from 2019 to 2024. At the same time, the number of physician-owned practices in rural areas dropped by 3,300. That’s according to a new data analysis by the Physicians Advocacy Institute and Avalere, a healthcare consultancy. The researchers examined changes in location data in the IQVIA OneKey database during the period. The database contains a practice location that corresponds to a physician’s National Provider Identifier (NPI). The study revealed the following findings: The volume of independent rural physicians declined by 43%; The volume of independent medical practices declined by 42%; The market share of independent rural physicians fell from 42% to 25%; The market share of independent medical practices declined from 58% […]