Maintaining finances and implementing EMR systems were cited as the most significant challenges in running a group practice, according to the results of the second annual survey conducted by Englewood, Colo.-based Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).
Specifically, the 2,077 medical practice professionals who responded to the poll identified the following as the top three challenges:
· Maintaining physician compensation levels in an environment of declining reimbursement; and
According to MGMA, these findings were similar to last year’s results. However, respondents to the 2009 survey listed collecting from self-pay patients and those with high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts as the fourth-highest challenge, as opposed to recruiting physicians, which ranked fourth last year (and sixth in the current poll). The fifth biggest roadblock was found to be managing finances in the face of uncertain Medicare reimbursement rates, it says.
