MINNEAPOLIS, November 19, 2008—A new survey on the growing shortage of doctors from The Physicians’ Foundation reports that an overwhelming majority of physicians believe there is a shortage of primary care doctors in the U.S. today, and almost half — more than 150,000 physicians —say they intend to cut back on the number of patients, or retire from practice altogether.

Asked to rate impediments to delivering patient care, physicians named “declining reimbursement” and “demands on physician time” as the number one and two problems.

Physicians plan these responses to the reimbursement problem, according to the survey:

• 11 percent, or more than 35,000 doctors nationwide, intend to retire
• 13 percent say they plan to seek a job in a non-clinical health care setting, away from patient care
• 20 percent say they will cut back on patients seen
• 10 percent say they will work part-time 

Both Medicare and Medicaid came up short in the survey:

• 65 percent said Medicaid reimbursement pays less than their cost of providing care
• 36 percent said Medicare reimbursement pays less than their cost of providing care

A third of physicians have already closed their practices to Medicaid patients, according to the survey; 12 percent have closed their practices to Medicare patients.

Physicians described the morale of the profession as poor. Only 6 percent described the professional morale of their colleagues as “positive.” Of physicians responding to the survey, 42 percent said the professional morale of their colleagues was either “poor” or “very low”  Over three-quarters described the practice of medicine as either “no longer rewarding” or “less rewarding”

The survey was conducted between May and July 2008 by Merritt, Hawkins & Associates. It was mailed to 270,000 primary care doctors and more than 50,000 specialists – virtually every physician engaged in active medical practice in the United States today. The total number of responses received was 11,950. The margin of error is less than one percent.