Visualizing Health Policy: Primary Care Practitioners' Perspectives on Delivery System Changes

This Visualizing Health Policy infographic is based on a survey of primary care clinicians in early 2015 and delves into primary care practitioners’ (PCPs’) perspectives on recent changes to the health care delivery system. While physicians view the increased reliance on nurse practitioners and physician assistants as more negative than positive for their ability to deliver quality care, their opinions are mixed on the effect of accountable care organizations and medical homes. Half of physicians say quality of care is positively affected by the increased use of health information technology; however, similar shares of physicians say quality of care is negatively affected by quality metrics and by financial penalties for unnecessary hospital readmissions. Generally, physicians rate private insurers more highly than public insurers on payment and ease of reimbursement. Nearly half say they are considering early retirement because of health care trends.

Visualizing Health Policy is a monthly infographic series produced in partnership with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The full-size infographic is freely available on JAMA’s website and is published in the print edition of the journal.

Filling the need for trusted information on national health issues, the Kaiser Family Foundation is a nonprofit organization based in Menlo Park, California.