Primary care physicians say they find their practices increasingly beset by outside interference that gets in the way of effective patient treatment.  When asked about the main problem facing primary care today, 70 percent of physicians tagged “third-party interference” as the biggest challenge, according to the Medical Economics 89th Annual Physician Report. Most physicians in the study pointed to prior authorizations as the most common type of interference they experience. But that is only the beginning, says Ripley Hollister, MD, a primary care physician who operates Hollister Healthcare Team in Boulder, Colorado. After thinking about the various sources of interference physicians deal with Hollister came up with an extensive list: prior authorizations and narrow networks from private payers; government mandates, regulations, and attestation requirements; quality metric and certification obligations; hospitals; EHR vendors; and physician advocacy groups.