Coronavirus Hits One In Five U.S. Doctors With Pay Cut

Bruce Japsen Senior Contributor Apr 22, 2020,08:00am EDT

Manhasset, N.Y.: Senior administrative director[+]

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More than 20% of U.S. physicians have experienced a furlough or pay cut as financial hits from the coronavirus strain COVID-19 batter the healthcare industry, a new analysis shows.

Across the country, hospitals and health systems are cancelling or postponing elective surgeries to free up inpatient capacity for a surge of patients sickened by COVID-19 and that has hit surgeons and certain specialist physicians hard.

About one-fifth of physicians, or 21%, said they have “experienced a furlough or pay cut,” according to the survey from physician staffing firm Merritt Hawkins and The Physicians Foundation.

 “The number is higher for those not treating COVID-19 patients (30%) than it is for those who are seeing COVID-19 patients (18%),” the 12-page analysis released Wednesday shows. Data for the survey comes from more than 840 physicians across the U.S., Merritt Hawkins, a unit of AMN Healthcare, said.

Many of the physicians being hit financially are surgical specialties like reconstructive or orthopedic surgeons that perform elective procedures that have been postponed to free up inpatient capacity for sick COVID-19 patients.

“The impact on physicians from COVID-19 is going to be transformative,” said Merritt Hawkins executive vice president Travis Singleton. “The way patients access physicians and how and where physicians practice will fundamentally change.”

HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest investor-owned hospital operator, said earlier this week that same facility inpatient surgeries declined 1.8% while same facility outpatient surgeries declined 5.9% in the first quarter compared to the first quarter of 2019. “Patient volumes across most services were significantly impacted in the last two weeks of the quarter as various COVID-19 policies were implemented by federal and state governments,” HCA said in a statement.

In the long-term, the COVID-19 pandemic could be hurting the nation’s supply of physicians, the Merritt Hawkins-Physicians Foundation analysis shows. Nearly one in five doctors, or 18% “plan to retire, temporarily close their practices, or opt out of patient care,” the survey data shows.

“Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians were expressing dissatisfaction in their jobs and experiencing high rates of burnout and mental health issues caused by stressors like regulatory burdens and EHR use,” said Dr. Gary Price, president of The Physicians Foundation. “The pandemic is straining physicians further and we need to prioritize providing solutions that will ease the financial and emotional burdens they are feeling as a means to improve their well being now and after the crisis is resolved.”

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