What are the costs to physicians of administrative complexity in their interactions with payers?

Key findings: (1) Primary care physicians spent significantly more time on administrative tasks than did medical specialists or surgical specialists. (2) All staff in physician practices with one or two physicians spent more time on administrative tasks than did physicians and staff in practices with more than 10 physicians. (3) More than 75 percent of physicians and administrators reported that the administrative burden of interacting with a health plan increased significantly or increased slightly in the past two years. (4) On average, physician practices spent $68,274 per physician per year interacting with health plans. When this average is multiplied by the number of physicians practicing in the United States, the total cost of physicians' interactions with health plans is $31.0 billion.