Administrative Burden in Primary Care: Causes and Potential Solutions

Commonwealth Fund October 2, 2025
Ann S. O’Malley, Divya P. Gupta, Eugene C. Rich, Corinne Lewis

TOPLINES

Primary care physicians face increasing administrative burden, including excessive documentation and quality reporting, that can be challenging to address

To ease the burden, stakeholders could improve electronic health record usability, simplify documentation and reporting requirements, improve compensation for primary care physicians, and leverage artificial intelligence appropriately

Abstract

• Issue: Primary care physicians (PCPs) provide services that address a wide range of patient needs and conditions. As a result, PCPs have substantial care management responsibilities and face greater administrative burden — like prior authorization requests and quality measure reporting requirements — than specialists do. These tasks distract PCPs from patient care, contribute to demoralization and burnout, and exacerbates the PCP workforce shortage.
• Goals: To identify the causes of and potential...

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