When Doctors Walk Away

It’s hard not to worry about this — more and more physicians are leaving practice, and that means fewer hands to care for an aging population. I can’t help but think about what this means for the future of healthcare access, especially in rural areas.

This October 2025 article by Rotenstein, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, tracked more than 712,000 physicians caring for Medicare patients and found attrition rates rising across all specialties and demographics. Especially likely to leave are female and rural physicians. The most likely to leave specialists are psychiatrists and gynecologists, with hospitalists considered high risk as well. Reasons for the departure of physicians include the electronic health record burden, inadequate staffing, and prior authorization requirements.

Learn More: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/ANNALS-25-00564