More than 90 percent of Americans believe it is important to discuss the treatment and palliative options they would choose to pursue if they were to become incapacitated by medical issues in the future, according to The Conversation Project’s 2018 National Survey. Yet, they also report that only 32 percent have actually conducted these conversations.

It’s no news that the U.S. has been experiencing a primary care shortage, but the impact of that shortage is now being seen on the patient side according to a recent study from FAIR Health, a nonprofit that collects data on privately billed and Medicare health insurance claims.

Primary Care Providers (PCP) are problem solvers trained to learn as much as they can about the entire human body. As soon as the patient begins to describe their concern, the PCP is processing the information and evaluating possible solutions or treatments. It is often difficult to determine how much time is needed for a visit because they are trained to not just look at a single problem, but the whole person. Value-based care and mandatory quality measures (or risk losing money) have made the primary care visit even more complex. If a provider runs late, patients become irritated and upset but expect the provider to give them the amount of time needed for whatever “oh by the ways” they mention even if it wasn’t included in the reason for visit.