Post by rmarks1 on Mar 9, 2014 0:01:59 GMT -5
As if Obamacare isn't in enough trouble already.
Bob
America's painful doctor shortage is threatening health care reform
The new federal budget, unveiled on Tue., March 4, trumpets a major shift in America's policy toward one of the most vexing problems in reforming our health care system: fixing the doctor shortage. Since 1997, the number of physicians entering the workforce each year has essentially been capped, while the demand for everything from hip replacements to treatments for diabetes to angioplasties has soared with our growing and aging population. Now, the Obama administration proposes spending an additional $5.23 billion over the next decade to mint new physicians. That sounds like a lot of money, and the proposal sounds like a big deal, because it officially breaks the old bottleneck that limits the supply of manpower we desperately need. But it doesn't go nearly far enough....
Unfortunately, the new policy is a timid response to a looming crisis. Based on current demographic trends alone, today's dearth of primary care practitioners is destined to get far worse. As a result, prices are rising, and competition is falling, as big hospital groups rush to hire all the primary care doctors they can find. Once one or two big chains control most of the family doctors and general internists in their markets, rivals can't find the troops to challenge them. That's creating oligopolies in markets across the nation. "The game today is, 'He who gets the most primary care doctors wins,'" says Travis Singleton, executive vice president of Merritt Hawkins, the nation's largest physician recruiting firm, and a division of AMN Healthcare...
Because the shortage is so deep and the investment so modest -- a little more than $500 million a year -- the new measure fails to reverse the policy that caused the problem in the first place. The flow of doctors entering the market each year is determined by the number of U.S. residency positions, chiefly in teaching hospitals. Those positions are funded primarily by the program that oversees Medicare and Medicaid. In 1997, the federal government essentially froze spending on residency slots, limiting the number to around 100,000 over three-to-four years, and in turn freezing the number of newly licensed physicians available for hire each year to around 26,000. Over the past 17 years, a few hospitals have established new residency programs for primary care doctors, raising the number to around 27,000, or a less than 4% increase. Meanwhile, the U.S. population has risen by 50 million, or almost 20%.
features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03/04/americas-painful-doctor-shortage-is-threatening-healthcare-reform/?iid=F_F500M
The new federal budget, unveiled on Tue., March 4, trumpets a major shift in America's policy toward one of the most vexing problems in reforming our health care system: fixing the doctor shortage. Since 1997, the number of physicians entering the workforce each year has essentially been capped, while the demand for everything from hip replacements to treatments for diabetes to angioplasties has soared with our growing and aging population. Now, the Obama administration proposes spending an additional $5.23 billion over the next decade to mint new physicians. That sounds like a lot of money, and the proposal sounds like a big deal, because it officially breaks the old bottleneck that limits the supply of manpower we desperately need. But it doesn't go nearly far enough....
Unfortunately, the new policy is a timid response to a looming crisis. Based on current demographic trends alone, today's dearth of primary care practitioners is destined to get far worse. As a result, prices are rising, and competition is falling, as big hospital groups rush to hire all the primary care doctors they can find. Once one or two big chains control most of the family doctors and general internists in their markets, rivals can't find the troops to challenge them. That's creating oligopolies in markets across the nation. "The game today is, 'He who gets the most primary care doctors wins,'" says Travis Singleton, executive vice president of Merritt Hawkins, the nation's largest physician recruiting firm, and a division of AMN Healthcare...
Because the shortage is so deep and the investment so modest -- a little more than $500 million a year -- the new measure fails to reverse the policy that caused the problem in the first place. The flow of doctors entering the market each year is determined by the number of U.S. residency positions, chiefly in teaching hospitals. Those positions are funded primarily by the program that oversees Medicare and Medicaid. In 1997, the federal government essentially froze spending on residency slots, limiting the number to around 100,000 over three-to-four years, and in turn freezing the number of newly licensed physicians available for hire each year to around 26,000. Over the past 17 years, a few hospitals have established new residency programs for primary care doctors, raising the number to around 27,000, or a less than 4% increase. Meanwhile, the U.S. population has risen by 50 million, or almost 20%.
features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03/04/americas-painful-doctor-shortage-is-threatening-healthcare-reform/?iid=F_F500M
Bob