Becker's Hospital Review

March 2017 Issue of Becker's Hospital Review

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54 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Which Physician Specialties Are Happiest? By Emily Rappleye A physician's specialty could heavily influence their level of happiness at work, according to Medscape's 2017 Lifestyle Report. Of the more than 14,000 physicians surveyed, some specialties reported notably higher rates of feeling very or extremely happy at work. Here is how the specialties rank on happiness at work, according to the Medscape survey. Dermatology — 43 percent reported feeling very or extremely happy at work Ophthalmology — 42 percent Allergy and Immunology — 41 percent Psychiatry and Mental Health — 37 percent Pulmonary Medicine — 37 percent Orthopedics — 37 percent Pediatrics —36 percent Pathology — 36 percent Oncology — 36 percent Gastroenterology — 35 percent Surgery — 35 percent Neurology — 34 percent Otolaryngology — 34 percent Anesthesiology — 33 percent Radiology — 33 percent Plastic Surgery — 32 percent Obstetrics/Gynecology — 32 percent Cardiology — 31 percent Urology — 31 percent Diabetes and Endocrinology — 31 percent Infectious Disease — 31 percent Critical Care — 30 percent Family Medicine — 29 percent Emergency Medicine — 28 percent Internal Medicine — 28 percent Nephrology — 24 percent Rheumatology — 24 percent Though all groups were happier outside of work than at work, some groups appear to be happier in general, such as derma- tologists, who report feeling happy out- side of work (74 percent) and at work (43 percent). Others, such as urologists, were much happier outside of work (76 percent) than at work (31 percent). n What PCPs Really Think About Repealing the ACA By Emily Rappleye M ost primary care physicians are in favor of keep- ing the ACA, despite that proponents of repeal say the law needlessly burdens physicians, ac- cording to a recent survey. "What we heard is that the majority of primary care physicians are open to changes in the law but over- whelmingly opposed full repeal," Craig Pollack, MD, lead author and associate professor of medicine at Bal- timore-based Johns Hopkins University School of Medi- cine, said in a statement. The small survey, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, polled 426 primary care physicians from a ran- dom sample of the American Medical Association Master- file between December 2016 and January 2017. Physician specialties included internal medicine, pediatrics, geriat- rics and family medicine. Here are three main findings from the survey. 1. Just 15.1 percent of PCPs want the entire ACA re- pealed. All respondents who wanted the law repealed in its entirety identified as Republican. They accounted for 32.4 percent of all Republican respondents. Among those who voted for President Donald Trump, 37.9 percent want the entire law repealed. 2. PCPs strongly support the regulations the ACA put on the insurance market. For example, 95.1 percent of PCPs said the provision that prohibits payers from deny- ing coverage to those with preexisting conditions was "very important" or "somewhat important" for improving our nation's health. Other provisions that received support include tax credits for small businesses (90.8 percent), al- lowing young adults up to age 26 to stay on their parents' plans (87.6 percent), individual tax subsidies (75.2 percent) and Medicaid expansion (72.9 percent). 3. Despite support for provisions that expanded coverage to high-risk patients, roughly half of physi- cians favor the individual mandate and penalty. This reflects the sentiment of the general public as well, according to the report. "These results point to an im- portant need to educate healthcare providers and the public about the fundamental inseparability of these provisions: policies that do not address adverse selec- tion would lead to increased and unsustainable health insurance costs," the authors wrote. 4. Most physicians (73.8 percent) want parts of the law changed. In particular, PCPs said they favored proposals to increase consumer choice, such as a proposal to create a public option to compete with private payers, similar to Medicare. Physicians were also supportive of proposals to increase the use of health savings accounts (68.7 percent) and to provide Medicaid-eligible people with tax credits to purchase private insurance (58.6 percent). High-deduct- ible health plans were the least popular, gaining support from just 29.4 percent of respondents. n

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