GPs in US face losses of $100k each due to virus
General practices are projected to have combined revenue losses of AU$21.7 billion due to dramatic declines in patient visits from March to May 2020 during coronavirus shutdowns, a US study suggests.
Researchers estimate a $97,365 downturn in gross revenue per full-time doctor, after projecting expected 2020 gross revenue with and without COVID-19 shutdowns.
They used national data on utilisation, staffing, expenditures and reimbursements to calculate how much revenue primary care practices would lose in 2020 due to the cancellation of in-person outpatient visits in response to coronavirus.
The biggest causes of financial losses were decreased in-person visits leading to fewer payments to practices for those visits, said lead author Dr Sanjay Basu, a faculty member at the Center for Primary Care at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts.
