Successful patient engagement requires that physicians have adequate time and space to focus on care. However, 70% of physicians are spending more than one day a week on paperwork instead of patient care, according to the 2014 Practice Profitability Index (PPI). In addition to the overwhelming paperwork, nearly one-quarter of physicians (23%) spend more than 40% of their time on administration.

The report also found that 40% of physician indicated patient engagement programs, such as disease management and population health efforts aimed at high-risk patients, hold the greatest promise for their practice performance in 2014.

The PPI was conceived in 2013 as part of a partnership between leading cloud-based health technology provider, CareCloud, and Quantia, Inc., a leader in physician engagement and alignment. The research is intended to serve as an annual barometer for the operational wellbeing of U.S. medical groups in the year ahead. 5,064 physicians contributed their insights to the second annual PPI during March of 2014.

Additional key findings from the 2014 PPI included:

• U.S. physicians are now more than twice as likely to foresee eroding, not increasing, profits in 2014.
• Those with a negative outlook increased from 36% to 39% during the past year, while optimists declined from 22% to 19%.
• The issues weighing on finances are still led by declining reimbursements (60%); rising costs (50%);requirements from the Affordable Care Act (49%); and the transition to ICD-10 (43%)

To download the entire 2014 PPI, visit: http://www.carecloud.com/practice-profitability-index-2014