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MMS Physician Practice Environment Index Report

The MMS Physician Practice Environment Index for 2007 increased fractionally to 72.8 over the previous year, following 13 consecutive yearly declines. The reversal in the direction of the Massachusetts Index may be explained primarily by fundamental shifts in three key Index variables: 

• The ratio of physician income to housing prices fell as median income increased while median housing prices continued to soften, representing at least a temporary improvement in the physician’s access to the housing market.
  
  
• Average professional liability fees declined 2.3 percent in 2007, a directional shift that represented a change from the prior trend of increasing fees.
  
  
• A relatively sharp increase in the number of applications to Massachusetts medical schools amounting to 8.6 percent. An increase in this variable is treated as a positive impact on the overall Index.

In the view of the researchers from the Howell Group who conducted the study, the improvement in the 2007 index will likely be a temporary phenomenon and that the Massachusetts practice environment will soon return to the less acceptable environment that prevailed over the past decade and a half.

Download the full report.  (.pdf, 172 kb, 8 pages)