Doctors are almost unanimous in blaming insurance plans for worsening conditions for patients who need care, and many are considering leaving the profession altogether, according to a survey from Aimed Alliance.

The company spoke to hundreds of doctors across the country who practice either internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, or gynecology.

Among the findings:

• Almost nine in 10 doctors said barriers put in place by insurance plans have worsened conditions for patients.
• About two out of three said that they would recommend against a career in medicine because of insurers.
• Almost half are considering changing their careers.

“I can understand why many of the respondents reported that they would not recommend this career to anyone else,” Aimed Alliance medical director Dr. Shannon Ginnan told StudyFinds. 

“As practitioners, much of our time is spent on burdensome paperwork required from health insurers for our services to be paid for. This prevents us from spending as much time on patient care as we would like, and it doesn’t take much for all this paperwork to interfere with the services that we provide.”

Among other findings:

• 87 percent of doctors say that red-tape from insurance companies have caused patients’ conditions to grow worse.
• 83 percent are worried that their patients will suffer from prolonged pain because of that.
• 91 percent said an insurance policy hampers care for patients.
• 91 percent think that insurers force patients to take cheaper, and possibly less effective, medicine through “non-medical switching.”

David Binder Research conducted the survey on behalf of Aimed Alliance, contacting 600 physicians online from February 25 to March 2, 2018. The study has a margin of error of 4.0 percentage points.

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