It seems there are problems in patient care, primarily for people trying to set appointments as new patients, with primary care physicians.

And the Department of Health and Human Services is putting “mystery shoppers” in place, in order to pinpoint patient care providers, who are not willing to schedule new patients. The actual goal is to hone in on the problem areas, and push for the proper solution.

According to ABC’s HealthCheck, the plan will bring close to 5,000 mystery shoppers in direct contact — and in some cases an attempt to contact — nearly 500 physician services providers in close to 10 states. The Department of Health and Human Services is hoping that this will be a testament of how many primary care physicians are actually accepting new patients, which are dodging new patients, as well as reasons for not seeing them.

The news articles goes on to explain that two recent studies, conducted at the University of Pennsylvania, suggest significant differences in regards to quality of patient care, experienced by kids with private insurance, as opposed to children who were insured publicly (Medicaid).

Dr. Karin Rhodes, emergency physician at the University of Pennsylvania, said of her research results, “This study shows a failure to care for our most vulnerable children.”

Either way, providers of patient care across the nation, who are learning of the “mystery shoppers” scenario, are completely outraged.

The American Medical Association, shunned the idea too, commenting, “the government should be helping get more primary care doctors, rather than using ‘mystery shoppers’ to tell us what we already know.”