Physician practices around the country took an unprecedented financial hit with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. Recent research from the American Medical Association (AMA) reveals an estimated pandemic-related shortfall in Medicare physician fee spending of $13.9 billion, or a 14% reduction, across all states and all major specialties in 2020.
While the report pointed to a “strong recovery” in May and June, that recovery stalled in the second half of 2020, and spending never returned to pre-COVID-19 levels.