We interrupt your call with the revenue cycle team, or your hurried sprint to another office for a physician check-in, or the peek out the window to check on the snowplow in the parking lot to ask: How’s your stress level? 

In our Dec. 2, 2025, MGMA Stat poll, nearly eight medical practice leaders in 10 (78%) reported their stress level increased this year, while only 18% said it was about the same and a paltry 4% say they decreased their stress level at work. The poll had 478 applicable responses. 

What you told us 

For the small group of leaders whose stress decreased in 2025, the biggest relief often came from major career or role changes — leaving a toxic environment, changing employers or relocating, shedding HR duties, or even exiting the profession entirely. Several credited targeted professional development and peer support (including MGMA education, networking, and resource groups) with giving them new tools, confidence, and perspective to manage pressures more effectively.  

Others pointed to tangible practice improvements — better operating results, more time to focus on the practice, and new approaches to payers and shared savings — as evidence that strategic transformation can make the work feel lighter. 

In the majority with increased stress, respondents consistently described being overwhelmed by rising workload and responsibility amid chronic staffing shortages, turnover, and difficulty recruiting clinicians and staff. At the same time, financial pressure intensified, with lower reimbursement, payer denials, rising overhead and salary expectations, and a real fear about basic sustainability — especially for small, independent practices. 

Many respondents felt they were being asked to “do more with less” without adequate leadership support, citing conflicting messages from owners and health systems, and growing cultural strain inside their organizations. 

Layered on top of these internal pressures were relentless external forces — shifting regulations, payer and documentation demands, new EHRs, consolidation, and broader political and economic uncertainty — leaving many administrators exhausted, discouraged about the direction of healthcare, and in some cases ready to leave their roles altogether. 

Stress in practice management remains intense 

MGMA Stat has been tracking practice leader stress for years: 

• In a 2022 poll, 80% of medical group leaders said their stress and burnout had increased that year, with only 6% reporting a decrease.  
• A follow-up MGMA Stat poll in April 2024 found almost the same pattern: 75% said their stress/burnout had increased, 16% said it stayed the same, and just 9% said it decreased. 
• Even pre-COVID MGMA survey data indicated that roughly three-quarters of practice leaders already described themselves as burned out in 2018. 

Your 2025 responses fit into a long-running trend: this work has been hard for a long time — and for many leaders, it hasn’t gotten easier. 

It’s not just you: managers everywhere are strained 

Outside of healthcare, the rest of the workforce is feeling many of the same pressures. 

• Gallup’s most recent State of the Global Workplace findings show that global employee engagement fell to 21% in 2024. At the same time, about 40% of employees worldwide said they felt “a lot” of stress the previous day — a figure that climbs to 50% in the United States and Canada. 
• Managers are being hit hardest. Engagement among managers dropped more sharply than for individual contributors, and Gallup estimates that manager behavior explains roughly 70% of the variance in team engagement, meaning burned-out managers lead burned-out teams. 

Other data point in the same direction: 

• The American Institute of Stress, drawing on Headspace’s 2024 Workforce State of Mind report, notes that 47% of employees say most or all their stress comes from work, and 46% of healthcare workers report high or extreme stress. 
• APA’s 2025 Work in America survey found that 54% of U.S. workers say job insecurity has significantly increased their stress at work. 

If your stress level held steady or worsened this year, you’re not failing at work-life balance. The challenges of being a manager produce their own well-being concern before you layer on the complexities of healthcare today. 

Why the administrator role feels uniquely heavy 

As Jeff Comer, PhD, MHA, FACHE, described on an MGMA podcast, the administrator reality as “24/7, 365,” with calls at all hours and a sense that you’re never fully away from the job. Comer also noted that practice managers and leaders report high rates of relationship strain and behavioral health issues, and that many leaders wear stress as a kind of “badge of honor.” 

In an earlier MGMA article on the physical roots of burnout, Comer pointed to the science behind that feeling: chronic, unrelieved stress keeps inflammatory pathways activated and rewires how we think and sleep — which means that over time, stress isn’t just about mood; it’s a physiologic condition that erodes performance and health. 

The question now is: What do you do with these data points? 

Using the last weeks of 2025 as a reset, not a rescue mission 

The December calendar is already full of year-end duties and holiday obligations. This is not the moment for a complete life overhaul. But it can be the moment for small, deliberate shifts that set you up differently for 2026. 

A few places to start: 

1. Your trend is not a verdict 

If your stress increased, assume that it will continue unless something changes in how you work, not just how much you work. If your stress level seems steady, ask whether it feels sustainable or just familiar. 

If your stress decreased this year, get specific about what you did differently so you can protect and expand those habits in 2026. [In our 2024 time-management poll, leaders who reduced stress pointed to boundaries, more time off, job changes, physical activity and peer support as key levers.] 

2. Do a quick stress audit before January 1 

Grab your notes app or a sheet of paper. List your top three recurring stressors — for example, staffing coverage, payer issues, or a particular service line. For each, ask: 

• What can I stop or simplify? 
• What can I share or delegate? 
• What can’t I change yet but could handle differently? 

Comer’s advice from the MGMA podcast applies here: break overwhelming, chronic stressors into manageable pieces where you can reclaim at least some control. 

3. Pick one small, daily “off switch.” 

Comer’s guidance is to start tiny: five minutes a day doing one thing that genuinely calms or restores you — a quiet cup of tea or coffee, a walk, a few pages of a book, a brief mindfulness exercise. This isn’t about perfection; it’s about telling your nervous system, once a day, that it’s allowed to downshift. 

Designing a calmer and more effective 2026 

A stress-free year is an unrealistic goal. Instead, aim for a year in which your systems make chronic, unmanageable stress less likely. Consider three 2026 commitments: 

1. Build time management around energy, not just tasks 

Time-management guidance from consultant Katie Lawrence emphasizes weekly “brain dumps,” structured email time and disciplined meeting habits to free up mental bandwidth. Instead of trying to “work faster,” consider: 

• Blocking calendar time for deep-focus work on your biggest priorities. 
• Limiting routine meetings to specific days. 
• Treating your inbox as an action list. 

2. Put leader well-being on the leadership agenda 

In our 2022 burnout poll findings, leaders who made progress didn’t just push wellness messages to staff; they changed benefits, encouraged time off, and normalized talking about stress in leadership circles. In 2026, that might mean: 

• Adding well-being metrics to leadership team discussions. 
• Building backup coverage so administrators can be unavailable at times. 
• Making coaching, peer groups, or mentorship available for managers, not just physicians. 

3. Retire the “badge of honor” approach to stress 

Continuing to celebrate nonstop overwork is risky for people and organizations. As Comer noted, leaders are trained to be strong and always have the answers, but untreated, chronic stress ultimately undercuts that strength. In practical terms, this can be as simple as: 

• Stopping the “who’s busier” competition in meetings. 
• Modeling realistic hours where possible. 
• Praising outcomes and teamwork more than martyrdom. 

This week’s poll was a snapshot of how 2025 treated you — and how you treated yourself in the middle of competing pressures. You can’t eliminate every stressor in the weeks ahead. But you can choose a few specific, realistic moves that make 2026 feel less like white knuckling your way through another year and more like leading from a place of steadier footing. 

Your practice needs that version of you, and so do the people waiting for you at home.