The United States healthcare landscape has challenges for both patients and physicians alike. Patients often encounter unforeseen financial burdens due to ambiguous billing practices and hard-to-navigate insurance systems. Just as patients struggle with a complex healthcare experience, so do physicians. Physicians are forced to deal with steadily decreasing reimbursements and increasing operational expenses, which inhibits their ability to provide high-quality healthcare.  

The increasing costs of healthcare in our country, particularly in comparison to other wealthy countries, represents a stark reality for all Americans: patients have larger bills to pay, yet physicians must battle to be reimbursed appropriately. Physicians encounter obstacles concerning Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements that fail to keep pace with rising costs and inflation. Medicare reimbursement rates are at a concerningly low level, meaning that some physicians may have to decide to no longer offer care to Medicare patients. This, coupled with an impending physician shortage, underscores the urgency of the current healthcare situation and its potential impact on patient care.  

If these trends continue in this direction, everyone will be impacted. For patients, this may look like an inability to access care, long wait times to see a physician, or receiving lower quality healthcare. For physicians, the impact could potentially be having to make the hard decision to no longer provide care for Medicare patients, or even worse, electing to step away from healthcare altogether. To mitigate the current situation of healthcare and prevent it from worsening, collaborative efforts must be taken to enhance reimbursement rates, streamline billing procedures, and alleviate burdens on physicians and patients alike. Failure to address these issues is no longer an option because patient care is in danger.