Number of physician visits

Over the past five years, the number of physician visits has roughly followed the growth in the US population; however, the number of physician visits per person declined significantly in 2016 by 10.8%, despite a 12.0% increase the year prior. A significant shift among workers with employer-sponsored health insurance to nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) has caused fewer physician visits. This coincides with declines of 5.9% and 10.8% in the number of physician visits in 2012 and 2016, respectively. Similarly, the growing prevalence of alternative healthcare options like nearby retail clinics has enabled some patients to use these mediums instead of visiting a physician. Several factors have helped offset downward pressure on the number of physician visits. For example, growing access to medical care from the Affordable Care Act and high employment rates until recently have stimulated the substantial need for physician care. These contributed to steady boosts in physician visits made within the period.

In 2020, the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic dramatically disrupted the ability and willingness of individuals to receive care within the period. To preserve resources and human resources to fight the virus and its spread, physician's offices across the country closed and nonessential procedures were canceled or delayed. But, phased re-openings in place, which have permitted nonemergency visits to resume, helped allow individuals to visit locations in the period under the guidance of abiding by social distancing protocols and mask mandates. As such, these factors boosted public awareness of health-related concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which boosted the number of physician visits by 5.3% in the year.

The reopening of the economy amid boosting vaccination numbers helped curtail the number of people making visits in 2021 and 2022 as people getting vaccinated helps protect them against the effects of contracting the virus, which shortened the need to plan more visits to physician offices for these related concerns, which helped concurrently leveled visits in the period. Even with these factors, aging populations as boomers and millennials start aging more will concurrently lead to more visits to physicians being necessitated as the number of visits is expected to uptick in 2023 concurrently. The promotion and establishment of younger individuals starting their careers will also help boost their salaries and spending, which is also set to help boost the need for physician visits because their expanded income grants them the opportunity to do so affordably. As this factor is expected to continue, physician visits will expand in 2024 and 2025.