No Room at the Doctor's Office

Today I got a message that I need to call the office – which is a large group practice – and reschedule. That’s all it said. It seemed odd and possibly ominous to me because I already have an appointment with him in January. When I spoke to a staff member on the phone, I was told that Dr. X has a serious health problem and may not be coming back to the practice. That was a blow. But a worse blow was that all their doctors have full patient lists and I’m on my own – find a new doctor, and good luck.

I’m well aware that most doctors these days, and certainly most good doctors, are full up and not taking new patients. I just have to start asking around and hoping for the best.

[This is getting more common than people think. Independent providers, especially in primary care, are getting rarer and rarer, even within group practices. That has a lot to do with the way ObamaCare reset financial incentives in health care, forcing more people into full-coverage plans that didn’t account for pricing signals on usage. Plus, it also made family practice less profitable, which means that newer providers are going to specialties instead. It’s only going to get worse as this generation’s family-practice doctors age out. — Ed]