The number of primary care physicians billing Medicare dropped from 139,000 in 2018 to 132,000 in 2023, according to MedPAC’s March 13 report to Congress.
Between 2018 and 2023, the total number of clinicians billing Medicare grew from approximately 1 million to 1.1 million. However, the number of primary care physicians — those specializing in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, and geriatrics (excluding hospitalists) — declined during that same period.
The analysis draws on Medicare claims data covering 100 percent of beneficiaries and information from the 2024 annual report of the Boards of Trustees of the Medicare trust funds.
Here’s how the number of physicians billing Medicare changed from 2018 to 2023:
| Year | Primary care physicians | Physicians (other specialties) | APRNs and PAs | Other practitioners |
| 2018 | 139,000 | 462,000 | 237,000 | 174,000 |
| 2019 | 138,000 | 468,000 | 258,000 | 180,000 |
| 2020 | 135,000 | 468,000 | 268,000 | 172,000 |
| 2021 | 134,000 | 472,000 | 286,000 | 180,000 |
| 2022 | 133,000 | 477,000 | 308,000 | 184,000 |
| 2023 | 132,000 | 483,000 | 327,000 | 189,000 |