CHESTCHEST NewsJoining the AMA to encourage survey compliance for accurate data

Joining the AMA to encourage survey compliance for accurate data

April 17, 2023

The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) joined the American Medical Association along with over 170 health care organizations in undertaking a national study to capture an accurate and complete representation of current practice expenses through direct interaction and response from practices that accounts for the technology, equipment, facilities, and staffing costs and the hours dedicated to patient care.

Through broad participation, resulting survey data will serve as a representation of the realities of practice expenses faced by practicing providers in practice and validated by Mathematica, a fully independent research company. These data will be will be shared with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to update the Medicare Economic Index and the Resource-Based Relative Value Scale.

The surveys will cover:

Practice information

Physician hours

The full letter to medical practices can be found below. We encourage the broad participation to ensure an accurate accounting of the realities faced by our community of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep providers.

Help Us Help You! This is an important opportunity to represent physician practices!

We are writing to ask for your support of a national study about physician practices, currently being sponsored by the American Medical Association (AMA) and supported by more than 170 health care organizations. The objective of this study is to help document changes in the U.S. health care delivery system that impact your practice every day. One of the recurring comments that we hear from physicians is that decision-makers and payers are not fully informed about the broad clinical, operational, and financial challenges that their practices face. This study represents your opportunity to communicate accurate financial and operational information to policymakers, including members of Congress and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Data from this survey will be used to help determine physician payment levels. Our profession is presented with an important opportunity and your participation in this study will ensure that the voice and priorities of your practice is clearly heard.

The AMA has contracted with Mathematica, an independent research company with extensive experience in survey methods as well as care delivery and finance reform, to conduct the survey. Physician practices will be selected randomly to collect their confidential responses. The AMA and Mathematica will make data collection as convenient for you and your practice as possible and assure you that your individual data will be kept private. Financial information is critical to this survey and we, therefore, anticipate that financial experts will be needed to complete this portion of the data collection effort. Please afford your staff the necessary time so that your voice may be included in the final study results. Additionally, it is critical that we understand the direct patient care hours provided in your practice. Thus, we anticipate that many physicians will need to respond to a few questions to collect this information accurately.

Thank you in advance for your consideration. We hope that you will take the opportunity to participate in this critical study. Your involvement will make certain that the information collected will accurately represent your practice, patients, and profession.