Pearl Health is surveying primary care leaders across the country — and your voice matters.
Primary care is at a crossroads. Rising burnout, shifting payment models, and mounting pressure to deliver more with less have placed an unsustainable burden on providers. Yet, amid these challenges, a clear truth is emerging: primary care is the foundation on which a more effective, equitable, and sustainable healthcare system must be built.
At Pearl Health, we believe transformation starts with listening. That’s why we launched the Primary Care Pulse — an annual survey capturing the perspectives of physicians leading this transformation on the ground.
What We’ve Learned
In our last Primary Care Pulse Report, we synthesized survey responses from more than 200 primary care physicians with follow-up interviews and secondary research from trusted sources. The findings revealed a system under strain:
Despite the deep structural challenges confronting primary care, we found reasons for optimism. Physicians participating in value-based care through Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) were:
These findings suggest that value-based care—with the right incentives, enabling technology, and support—may offer a more sustainable and rewarding path for primary care leaders.
As value-based care enters a new phase of evolution, understanding the needs and experiences of those on the front lines has never been more important.
Why Your Voice Matters Now
The 2025 Primary Care Pulse comes at a pivotal moment — the choices healthcare leaders and providers make today will shape the trajectory of how healthcare is delivered in the U.S. for decades to come. Will we accelerate the transformation toward a stronger, more sustainable primary care system? Or will we deepen the strains that threaten its foundation?
Private-sector volatility — through corporate retrenchments, divestitures, and program exits — has forced many primary care organizations to reassess their paths forward. Health systems and physician groups now face hard choices: balancing the promise of value-based care and advanced payment models against the operational realities of population health management and care coordination at scale.
At the same time, policymakers are signaling a new phase. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has ended several value-based care models in favor of a narrower set of programs with clearer expectations around risk and accountability. The era of experimentation is giving way to a new focus on consolidation and scale.
- For hospitals and health systems, the question is urgent: how do we build models of care delivery that are both clinically effective and economically sustainable?
- For physician networks and independent groups, the landscape demands clarity and agility. Leaders must evaluate how best to position their organizations for long-term success—whether by investing in new infrastructure, forging strategic partnerships, or evolving their risk-bearing strategies in a more selective and competitive environment.
- For primary care providers and care teams, the day-to-day realities are changing too. Success increasingly depends not just on delivering excellent clinical care, but on navigating new expectations around quality, risk, and patient engagement—all while confronting mounting administrative demands and growing burnout.
This is why your voice matters. The Primary Care Pulse is designed to capture the realities on the ground—through the perspectives of frontline clinicians and healthcare leaders—and to spotlight where strategic support is most urgently needed. Together, your insights will help illuminate a path forward for the future of primary care.
SURVEY OPEN
2025 Primary Care Pulse
Fill out this short survey and share your experience as a primary care provider
