Summary: Shortage Of Physician Services

Consequently, it become a financial problem where physician sees no improvement in their revenue/profit, and the cost of treatments continue to rise as reimbursement challenges the physician’s charges. There is always a cost to a better health care and coverage, and vast of it comes from taxation. Hospital and physicians function on funding to keep the door open and operating, and majority of the funding are from taxation. For

Every developed country around the globe is going through a lot of difficulties in providing better healthcare to its citizens. As stated by Norris (2002) the causes are universal and the increase in the percentage of elderly people which require better healthcare, the increasing cost of medical technology, patients' expectations of services and quality, and economic and social changes that reduce the state's ability to fund healthcare while increasing its involvement. All of these factors drive up costs and reduce equity of access (Norris, 2002).

Over the course of our countries history, the delivery of our health care system has tried to meet the needs of our growing and changing population. However, we somehow seem to fall short in delivering our goals of providing quality, affordable and accessible healthcare to our citizens. The history of our delivery system will show we continuously changed the delivery of our system however never mange to control cost. If we can come up with efficient ways to cut cost, the delivery of quality care will follow.

Universities stemmed some of the biggest medical advances in the health care industry amongst the world. The educational platform for the United States spells long term success for health care, by growing the next generation of top health care providers. In comparison Germany and Canada also are represented amongst the top 50 medical schools in the world, but lack any representation of the top 10 prestige rankings. On top of that, both other countries lack volume and opportunity to receive a valued medical education when compared to the United States.

According to Health Resources and Services Administration If the system for providing primary care in 2020 were to stay fundamentally the same as today, there will be an estimated shortage of 20,400 primary care physicians ("Projecting the Supply and Demand for Primary Care Practitioners Through 2020," n.d.). In addition this projection doesn’t include the decreasing number of people perusing the medical degree and the baby boomers retiring form this filed of science. In the hand we are experiencing a significant increase in NPs and PAs. Considering this projected shortage, which is actually a very frightening situation the increasing number of NPs and PAs, can effectively be integrated; we could reduce the number of physician shortage by over 69 percent in 2020.

One of the issues is the increasing cost of healthcare which is dominating the health policy in U.S. this is accompanied by an increase in spending on healthcare. According to projections by the government, the spending on medical care will continue to rise. U.S spends more money on health care than any other nation globally (Holtz, 2013). The increase in the spending is as a result of improved tools for disease diagnosis, better surgical interventions among others. This raises an issue for the policy makers on the maximum GDP percentage that a country has to spend on healthcare, and whether the nation will afford the cost that is continually growing. In contemplating any change in the health policy, policy makers should consider the cost of the healthcare and the ability of the nation to support that high cost.

The purpose of this paper is to address the issue of the physician shortage in Unite State of America. This is more exactly delineate as a gap between the population’s demand for primary care services and the capacity of primary care, as currently delivered, respond to the demand. According to Nile (2015), physician is person trained and licensed to practice medicine or an individual with a Doctor degree in medicine. Physicians play a central role in health care delivery. Although now, physicians are sharing patient care responsibility with a team of Physician assistant (PA) and Nurse Practitioner (NP), especially with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act implementations. The PA and NP are alternative to medical doctor or physician

In healthcare system the highest quality medical care means” the greatest benefit to patients at the lowest possible cost” (Burke & Ryan, 2014, p. 3). “The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) defines quality health care as doing the right thing for the right patient, at the right time, in the right way to achieve the best possible results” (NCQA, p. 3) According to American college of physicians, the single most reason for the health care cost is higher healthcare spending. There are several factors involved in the high health care cost such as inappropriate use of technologies, lack of patient centered care, overuse of the reimbursement, excessive price for health care facilities, increased organizational cost, and health accountability are some of the reasons for increased health care cost. In order to decrease the cost, the available health resources be used judiciously and equitably. Understanding these factors and identifying the potential factors of health care costs assists in providing quality and effective services and thus improves the health outcomes (ACP, 2009).

A challenge that the healthcare nation is facing is to provide the quality of care that is expected and obtain low healthcare cost. Working hand in hand with the private sector and government is in hopes of improving the quality of care that each patient deserves and maintaining the cost so that research can continue. The purpose of this paper is to look into relationships between healthcare cost and quality healthcare.

The physician shortage is of highest concern in the United States, especially since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been passed. The question is, do we really have a physician shortage? Is it by geographical region or by specialty? I will explore this question and have several different solutions to the physician shortage problem.

Regardless of the many factors influencing the supply of physicians such as movement away from managed care, increase in the number of female physicians, lifestyle preferences, population growth, and increase in average lifespan, there still continues to be a physician shortage here in the United States. In order to fill these available positions in doctors’ offices, hospitals, and clinics due to the physician shortage, we are using IMGs, or international medical graduates.

Historically, the United States medical system has gone through three distinct time periods. The pre-industrial, post- industrial and corporate periods indicating the advancement of medical changes. The changes developed through cultural beliefs, values, social, technological innovations, economic constraints and political opportunism. Consequently, the U. S. health care system has a challenging geographic distribution of primary care physicians and specialists.

A lot of people are bewildered why more foreign doctors are not invited to work in American workplaces. There is a severe discrimination and prejudice amongst anyone who is not an innate U.S. citizen. One of the main reasons why Americans are trying to push foreigners away is for the safety of their nation. Some Americans think that all foreigners are terrorists and are set out to destroy Americans but this is not true at all. In fact, statistics show that foreigners actually bring good to the nation. Brian Palmer, author of Slate magazine says, “During the 1990s, a series of studies showed that graduates of foreign medical colleges performed slightly worse on exams than their U.S.-trained colleagues, and program heads gave marginally better reviews to domestic physicians. By the turn of the century, however, that gap had disappeared. International graduates now score higher than U.S.-educated doctors on many exams” (Palmer). This was shocking to know that even though foreign doctors are doing better than domestic doctors, they are still mistreated.

The number of physicians in the country has been decreasing at such a great rate that the government and other stakeholders in the health care sector are trying to camouflage this by increasing the number of foreign doctors practicing in the country. The American Medical Association has been trying to promote these re-entry programs designed for physicians since the year 2009 to help curb this problem. There are many people who can see what the problem is, but it is not possible for them to do much about it. Physicians also see this problem, and they are well aware of why the shortage is arising, but they are also unable to do much to prevent the issue. There are many problems that lead to the shortage of physicians, and unless something is done, it will continue escalating ADDIN EN.CITE Lynch19721573(Lynch, 1972)1573157317Lynch, MichaelThe Physician "Shortage": The Economists' MirrorAnnals of the American Academy of Political and Social ScienceAnnals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science82-88399ArticleType: research-article / Issue Title: The Nation's Health: Some Issues / Full publication date: Jan., 1972 / Copyright © 1972 American Academy of Political and Social Science1972Sage Publications, Inc. in association with the American Academy of Political and Social Science00027162http://www.jstor.org/stable/1040122( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_6" o "Lynch, 1972 #1573" Lynch, 1972).

The healthcare system plays a key role in the economic stability of our country, as every year trillions are spent in attempt to combat disease and health issues that plaque humanity. As it makes up a significant amount of the expenditures in the economy, so the costs associated with health care of those in pain from illness and injury, including lost productivity, increased need of assistance in living and also the cost of death in some cases, is important to the economic stability and over all standard of living in our country. The key to economic prosperity is balancing the need for care with the costs of illness to keep as many people healthy and well without breaking the bank of collective society. The costs of healthcare have been increasingly problematic in recent years with so many issues surrounding the current system. With the “total health care spending in the United States expected to reach $4.8 trillion in 2021, up from $2.6 trillion in 2010 and $75 billion in 1970, meaning that health care spending will account for nearly 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), or one-fifth of the U.S. economy, by 2021” (Aetna). With this in mind it is apparent that as we look at the trillion-dollar industry of the medical community it seems that it needs to be a major focus of our nation as a whole and with the many issues come many creative solutions. First let us analyze the reasons behind the current cost and the major problems facing this industry and than discus what