Its no secret that theres a shortage of physicians that will likely only get worse when the health-care overhaul law brings an estimated 33 million new people into the health-care system starting in 2014.

To gauge the current access situation, the government is planning a mystery shopper program that is already raising the hackles of some physicians, the New York Times reports. Federal contractors will pose as potential patients and call more than 4,000 physicians to see if they are accepting patients, how long the wait for different types of care is and whether the answers vary depending on whether the patient has private or public insurance. (A fraction of the doctors will be called back by contractors asking similar questions but identifying themselves as HHS representatives.)

An administration official tells the NYT the data will be presented only in the aggregate. But the physicians quoted arent pleased. Some tell the paper the mystery shopping method sows distrust between the government and physicians; others say the $347,370 survey is a waste of money and time because its already clear theres a problem.

While a shortage has been predicted for many years heres a 2002 WSJ report that mentions the issue the health law is expected to exacerbate the situation because more people will have insurance.

In March, a study from the Center for Studying Health System Change concluded that the growth of Medicaid enrollment under the new law will greatly outpace growth in the number of physicians accepting the insurance program. The groups stats show that in 2008, only 42% of primary-care doctors accepted Medicaid patients due to low reimbursement rates and other factors. Some 61% of primary-care doctors said they accepted new Medicare patients that year, and 84% accepted all or most patients with private insurance, according to CSHSC.

Health Blog readers, is a secret shopping program a good way to assess this problem?

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