If a physician is taking over a practice from a retiring physician they must automatically accept all patients who were previously in that practice
This is not always feasible. Some retiring providers have extremly large practices, which impairs the ability to provide quality care for all patients. This will also lead to burnout of physicians. This responisbility is on the retiring physician to attempt to find replacement(s), however, the physician taking over should not be required to take all patients. Otherwise, I expect retiring physicians will have an even harder time finding replacements.
Overall agree with the policy. It can sometimes be a challenge to accept new patients with multiple complex problems, solely due to the limited time and resources physicians and their offices have in the case where they are close to capacity and are accepting patients on compassionate grounds. In these instances it would not be fair to either the physician or prospective patient if the proper amount of time needed to manage and follow up with their health issues cannot be adequately allocated without sacrificing care from the current patient population.
