What keeps medical group administrators up at night?

According to a new poll, it's balancing budgets under the threat of a huge Medicare reimbursement cut.

On Tuesday, the Medical Group Management Association and American College of Medical Practice Executives teased the results of an online poll that asked members what their biggest professional challenges were. About 1,200 people responded.

Out of a possible 54 challenges, MGMA-ACMP said physicians practices' top concern was handling their finances under the cloud of the sustainable growth rate formula, which mandates a potential 30 percent Medicare reimbursement cut, starting next year. (SGR-mandated cuts, while dramatic, have usually been delayed through legislative action over the past few years, most recently in March, when Congress voted to give physicians a reprieve until 2013.)

In second place, private practices named preparing for new reimbursement models that require them to bear more financial risk, while in third place was transitioning from ICD-9 to ICD-10. Rounding out the top five list were rising operating costs and dealing with the meaningful use incentive program.

"The threat of a significant cut in Medicare reimbursement continues to plague physician practices and severely hinders their ability to properly plan and assess their financial situations," Dr. Susan Turney, MGMA-ACMPE's president and CEO, said in a statement.

In the poll, providers ranked the challenges by assigning them a score from 1 to 5, with 1 being "no challenge" and 5 an "extreme challenge." MGMA-ACMPE said it then created the list by weighting other factors, such as the percentage of practices that said a particular challenge was applicable to them.

MGMA-ACMPE is publishing the full research in the July issue of its Connexion magazine.

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