SANFORD, N.C. — Before the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Andrew Bush treated as many as 1,000 patients every month in his orthopedics practice. Now he worries about going bankrupt.
The surgeon is among a dwindling number of independent physicians in the United States, where doctors are selling their practices to behemoth hospital systems or leaving the profession altogether.
“I don’t want to give up, because I’m a fighter,” said Bush, whose practice, Central Carolina Orthopaedic Associates, serves a blue-collar town of about 30,000 people. “But our summer numbers were so bad. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
