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For the fifth consecutive year, Medical Economics will reveal its list of obstacles physicians say they face in the coming year and, more importantly, how to overcome them. As we did last year, we asked readers to tell us what challenges they face each day and where they need solutions.

We've all heard the outrage over the sudden rise in the price of the EpiPen. What we hear far less often is how common the sudden and dramatic rise in many other pharmaceutical prices has become in recent years. It can be easy to forget issues like this until they affect us personally.

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) is not going to hold down the increasing cost of Medicare by adding over 1,600 pages of new regulations to the program. Instead, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should have reduced the cost of traditional Medicare by eliminating the requirement for detailed documentation of evaluation and management (E/M) charges.

In today’s market, partnerships come with a number of risks and uncertainties, leading physicians to question whether they truly want to be tied to a practice for the long term.

Physician practices are facing confusion and frustration due to the shift to value-based care and the ever-rising cost of care. Physicians seeking to stabilize their revenue amidst this chaos typically find themselves facing several challenges.

With Congress attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and with the president issuing executive actions to roll back portions of the ACA, some in the medical community have been wondering whether the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) also faces an uncertain future.