ALPHARETTA, Ga. (March 3, 2015)—A year after major implementation took place, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) still isn't popular legislation among doctors, a new physician survey by health care staffing firm LocumTenens.com finds. The January 2015 survey found that 44 percent of physicians were opposed to it prior to implementation, and 58 percent are opposed to it now after a year of working within the confines of the law.
Doctors noted that positives of the law included helping more people gain access to care, coverage for children under 26, no insurance denials for pre-existing conditions, decreasing the costs of end-of-life care and focusing on preventive health care measures. Negatives cited included lower reimbursement to physicians and hospitals, higher patient debt due to high-deductible plans and increased administrative and compliance burdens for their practices. Many physicians referenced patient confusion, with 78 percent stating that patients were not educated about how the ACA worked. Physicians mentioned that insurance companies should have done more to inform newly insured patients about deductibles, premiums, coverage limits, etc.
"After a year in the trenches trying to help patients understand this legislation, physicians by and large feel the law hasn't done a lot to help improve health care," said R. Shane Jackson, president of LocumTenens.com and Jackson Healthcare. "Physicians feel the ACA has made serving patients and running their businesses much harder. A year after implementation, and years after the political debate started, doctors are still passionate about how this law should have been designed and would still like to see changes made that will make it simpler for their staffs and patients to understand."
Politically, 74 percent of physicians said they felt the ACA would be overturned by Congress, with 66 percent of respondents saying they think it should be repealed. Still, many physicians were able to find some positives to the ACA. "We need health care reform," one physician wrote. "While possibly not perfect, it has opened the conversation."
More results from the survey can be found on the LocumTenens.com website.
