For issues that can drive physicians to quit

One news article details the reasons that drove a primary care physician to quit practicing medicine. Meanwhile, the American Medical Association is launching a media campaign to permanently fix the formula that is used to calculate Medicare payments to doctors.

The Fiscal Times/Miller-McCune: Medical Crisis in America: Why One Doctor Quit
Primary care physicians in America are struggling with what is and what will be: a health care system that's broken and the coming influx of aging baby boomers, according to Frederick M. Barken, M.D. in his book, Out of Practice.  ... [It's]  the compelling story of one man's struggle to retain a close connection with his aging patients, many of whom he began seeing when they were much younger, even as he was squeezed by Medicare. It's also the story of a doctor beset by rising overhead costs, plagued by liability insurance, exhausted by demented clients, and swamped by faxes that arrived by the pound, awaiting his signature, often for nonmedical matters  (Burns, 10/8).

CQ HealthBeat: AMA Launches Media Campaign For Permanent Formula Fix
The American Medical Association is upping its lobbying for a fix to the Medicare physician payment formula by launching radio and television ads and releasing results of a poll it commissioned. The group is asking patients and doctors to flood congressional lawmakers with calls to urge a permanent solution to the reimbursement scheme. The TV spot shows a senior clutching a colorful bunch of balloons as he's floating in the air. His look grows increasingly frightful as one by one the balloons pop and he falls into a wooded area. "Medicare keeps many seniors afloat," the voice over says. "But Medicare payments to doctors are scheduled to be cut by 30 percent in January. It means doctors may have to limit the number of Medicare patients they see or even stop seeing them altogether to keep their doors open" (Bunis, 10/7).