Health Care Expenditures Attributable to Primary Care Physician Overall and Burnout-Related Turnover

The bottom line

Burnout-driven physician turnover carries a quantifiable price tag — roughly $260 million a year nationally within an estimated $979 million total turnover cost — which lets leaders argue prevention spending against a concrete counterfactual. Framing burnout in dollars often moves budget conversations that wellbeing language cannot. Primary-care-based estimates likely understate anesthesiology's replacement costs given locums market rates.

What the source found

AMA-backed cost analysis estimating physician turnover generates ~$979 million annually in excess healthcare spending nationally; approximately $260 million attributable specifically to burnout-driven departures; provides per-physician turnover cost estimates applicable across specialties.

Limitations and applicability

Primary care focus; cost estimates may not transfer directly to anesthesiology given specialty differences in billing, recruitment costs, and replacement timelines; modeling assumptions affect magnitudes.

Population and setting

U.S. primary care physicians (cost modeling)

Used in FairShare guides

• The Real Cost of Losing an Anesthesiologist: What the Data Says

About this evidence

Research question / practical issue

How does this source inform Retention and the Anesthesia Workforce for the population it studied?

Study design, evidence tier, and source class

Peer Reviewed Cost Analysis · primary source · evidence tier 2

Source type: Peer Reviewed Cost Analysis · primary · Evidence tier 2

Topics: Retention and the Anesthesia Workforce

Audience: Department Leaders