By NextBestFitClinician burnout from paperwork and EHR work
Clinicians spend hours a day on documentation, billing codes, and prior authorizations, which drives burnout and early retirement.
Evidence
- Practices spend about 12 hours a week on prior authorization alone.Sources: American Medical Association (2024)
Who's affected
Who is hurt
- Doctors, nurses, and other clinicians: Documentation and insurer paperwork drive burnout and early retirement.
- People with ongoing or specialist care needs: Paperwork leaves less face time with clinicians.
Who gains while it lasts
- Health administration and software vendors: They supply the record and billing systems used for administrative work.
Under your mix of paths
Paths that create or worsen it
Paths that fix or soften it
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Root causes
- Documentation for billing rather than care
- Multiple payers' rules
Related costs
Open questions
- How much documentation should payment require?
Caused or worsened by these paths
This problem only matters if one of these paths is chosen.
Feedback and clinician nudgesLow-value care and overtreatmentChosen
Electronic record alerts about low-value care can cause alert fatigue for clinicians.
Solution paths (2)
Open a path for what it fixes, what it creates or worsens, who gains and who loses, precedents, and how it connects to other paths. See all paths as a decision tree.
Simplify billing codes and documentation rules; fewer quality-reporting programs.
- +Clinician burnout from paperwork and EHR work
- +About $1 trillion a year in administrative cost
- −Leaves less complete or useful data
- −Depends on other changes to work
Pay for scribes or ambient AI documentation tools.
- +Clinician burnout from paperwork and EHR work
- −Health privacy
- −Medical errors and poor care coordination
Also addressed by paths for other problems
Standardize across many payersAbout $1 trillion a year in administrative costChosen
Requiring insurers to use identical forms, codes, prior authorization rules, and credentialing reduces provider paperwork.