Doctor-leaders favor physician accountability strongly, Obamacare slightly

A modest majority of physicians working in positions of executive leadership, 55 percent, believe there’s “more good than bad” in the Affordable Care Act.

A stronger proportion, 69 percent, feel doctors ought to be held accountable for both the costs and the quality of care.

Those are among the findings to turn up in a survey of 2,398 “physician leaders” conducted in the spring by the American Association for Physician Leadership and Navigant Consulting.

The groups released the findings Monday, saying more results are to follow in the coming weeks.

Querying chief medical officers and other senior-level medical execs, they also found:

• 57 percent of respondents agree or strongly agree that accountable care organizations will be a permanent model for risk-sharing with payers in the years ahead.
• 63 percent disagree or strongly disagree that “the elimination of FFS (fee-for-service) incentives in favor of value-based payments will hurt the quality of care provided to patients.”
• 58 percent agree or strongly agree that transparency about physicians’ business dealings is a positive trend for the profession.

These initial results “demonstrate an important shift among physician leaders—they recognize the changes in the market and are eager to gain access to tools and training to manage their expanded set of responsibilities,” Paul Keckley, PhD, of Navigant’s Center for Healthcare Research and Policy Analysis, said in an announcement of the results. 

Among American physicians as a whole, however, the majority approval of Obamacare may or may not represent a swing in opinion.

Last year the Physicians Foundation, a nonprofit, surveyed more than 20,000 doctors on a range of issues. Close to half, 46 percent, graded Obamacare with a D or an F while only 25 percent gave it an A or a B.