Survey: 8% of Physician Practices Nationwide Closed Due to COVID-19 August 20, 2020

New survey data released by The Physicians Foundation shows the COVID-19 pandemic has clearly harmed physician practices in the U.S.

The survey, conducted by Merritt Hawkins, is a biennial survey and has been conducted since 2008. The Survey of America's Physicians this year revealed how severely the pandemic has impacted the financial status of healthcare practices.

Some of the top line numbers include:

• 8% of physician practices nationwide have closed permanently due to COVID-19
• Another 4% plan to close their practices in the next 12 months
• Nationally 72% of physicians surveyed have seen reduced income over the last four months, with 56% of these physicians seeing income reductions of 26% or more
• COVID has hurt jobs in healthcare - 43% of surveyed physicians were forced to reduce staffing due to COVID-19
• Approximately 100,000 physicians have switched to primarily telemedicine practices

MSDC has tirelessly worked to educate District officials of the importance of medical practices to the health and economy of the District. Numbers like these show why.