Government to start "Secret Shopper" Calls to Primary Physicians

With the new Affordable Care Act, Obama has promised more Americans access to primary care.  This puts a strain on the already stretched system where there aren't enough primary care physicians to treat the patients they are already seeing.  A problem has arisen where doctors are currently refusing to accept new patients from the government due to continual threats to reduce or stop payments for the Government patients.

In order to get a grasp on how many physicians are doing this, the government has announced a "Secret Shopper" program where they will be calling primary physicians to see if they can visit the doctor, confirming whether doctors will or will not take new patients from the government.  States with doctors scheduled to receive call according to the New York Times are Florida, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.

How do you ensure your provider network is strong enough to handle a huge newly eligible population? Attend the Health Insurance Exchange Congress to learn strategies to ensure a sufficient choice of providers to consumers and include essential community providers that serve predominately underserved individuals.

Do you think doctors will receive this well?  What are some of the arguments that could be used to support both the US Government and the primary care physicians?