Summary: The Shortage Of Physician Assistants

The aim of the ACA is to provide affordable health care to all Americans, but it still leaves some issues unaddressed that will impact the access to health care. Covino (n.d.), “Though the intentions of the legislation are good, the Affordable Care Act does little to improve the actual health care delivery system” (para.1, page 2). According to the American Medical Association, we are facing an increasing Physician shortage. As of 2010 we faced a shortfall of 13,700 physicians, the estimate is that number will increase to 62,900 by 2015, 91,500 by 2020, and 130,600 by 2025 (Krupa, n.d.), with primary care taking the largest impact. Health Care coverage will be of no benefit if there are no doctors to treat the patients. An example of this occurred in 2002 when Thailand’s’ “30 Bhat Scheme” added (CNN n.d.) “14 million people to the country’s health care system, resulting in long waits and subpar service” (Your health is covered, but who is going to treat you?) Several factors contribute to the physician shortage. Many physicians are reaching the age of retirement, the Association of American Medical Colleges estimates nearly 15 million physicians will be eligible for Medicare in the coming years (CNN n.d.). The increasing cost of malpractice insurance also deters many from pursuing a career in medicine, and is forcing some doctors to retire. Also contributing to the physician shortage is a lack of spots in residency programs. “In 2011, more than 7,000 were left

Have you ever wanted to be a physician assistant? If you do, it is a challenge to be accepted in PA (physician assistant) school. There are over one hundred and twenty-five PA programs in the United States. A physician's signature is required on some percentage of the charts of patients whom PAs treat in twenty-four states. This job is considered to be the second best job America.

While the demand of healthcare need increasers the United States facing a physician shortage. In recent years the number of nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) has significantly increased and they are taking the part in providing healthcare cervices to the majority of patients. I believe nurse practitioners and physician assistants can practice independently from doctors and be free of oversight. Expanding the scope of NPs and PAs is essential to overcome the healthcare crisis we are facing; it will increase patient satisfaction and stabilizing the healthcare economy.

The new federal health-care law has raised the stakes for hospitals and schools already struggling to train more doctors. Evidence suggests there won’t be enough number of doctors to treat the newly insured millions under the ACA. At current graduation and training rates, America faces a shortage of as many as 150,000 doctors in the next 15 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges. The greatest demand will be for primary-care physicians. Emergency rooms, the only choice for patients who can't find care elsewhere, may grow even more with longer wait times under the new health law. That might come as a surprise to those who thought getting 32 million more people covered by health insurance would ease ER

The physician assistant (PA) profession has grown exponentially and as a consequence more people are becoming familiar with the profession. The profession has grown in the United States from 80,019 certified PAs in 2010 to 115,547 certified PAs in 2016 which is an increase of 44.4% over the past 6 years.1 Furthermore, in the United States there are 36 PAs per 100,000 population.1(p6) PAs are found in all 50 states and the average salary among all certified PAs in all specialties is $104,131 making the profession ranked number 3 out of 100 best jobs.1(p11,21) Therefore, the PA profession is becoming more popular and demanding which makes for a competitive environment when applying to a PA graduate program.

The biggest challenge that Physician Assistances face is when a patient questions their competency or their ability to care for them. PA’s are one of the youngest allied health fields and some people are unaware of the role of a physician assistant. The best way to reassure the patient that they are being properly taken care of is to educate the patient on the topic of Physician Assistant. The first Physician Assistant program started in 1960 in the military, to help with the growing need for primary care doctors (Mittman). Physician Assistance must first obtain a four year degree with a competitive GPA of 3.6 or

by a nurse equivalent is equivalent to care provided by a physician.. In addition, the

deficiencies that appears in the United States has placed the spotlight on the advanced practice nurses, involving nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) to make up for the insufficiency physicians (Kleinpell, Ward, Kelso, Mollenkopf, & Houghton, 2015). With the NPs and PAs coming into the for forth to provide patients with high-quality healthcare at reduce costs. The PAs and NPs continue to inform patients on new medical advancement and treatment pertaining the patients? health conditions to ensure patients continue up-to-date knowledge and to encourage

The ACA will address the shortage of primary care physicians by funding training programs and

The rate of enrollment to medical schools in the United States has decreased from previous years, therefore there will be less licensed physicians within the health care field, as the older physicians age out. The growing elderly population in the United States, in need of medical care, is another reason for the increase in need for medical assistants. One last factor is the greater accessibility to health insurance for all. This is driving more people into the health care system, therefore spawning a need for more non-medical professionals, such as medical assistants who can assist on the administrative end to get the patients information into the system for care and

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will cause a large influx of patients into the health care system. For a variety of reasons, this will change how the front-line health care personnel provide care. Nurses will expand his or her scope and territory of care. Front line providers will change to include more advanced practice nurses because of the national shortage of primary care providers ("Department Of Health And Human Services," 2014). No longer will they just practice in brick and mortar hospitals. Because of the recently instituted Medicare, reimbursement regulations after patients are discharge from the hospital more nurses will be in the field performing well patient checks. These nurses will ensure the follow through of discharge

The Obamacare/ACA, might have helped numerous of individuals in acquiring health care, but the health professionals are facing a shortage of reimbursement difference for their services. As a result, Hospitals and healthcare providers were force to layoff personal and come up with innovative solutions. This point is proven by the renowned author, Amy Anderson by stating as follows: “The American health care framework has had shortages of personnel for quite some time and would not be prepared to give the adequate service to this amount of patients in need of medical attention. Training new professional health services personnel could take years. There is a shortage of graduates from medical and nursing schools. Doctors, nurses and health professional are sharing responsibilities prospective patients will face a longer wait time”. (Anderson, 2014)

With advances in medicine, Americans are living longer and with chronic illnesses that require long term medical maintenance. As the population has grown with patients that are aging and becoming sicker in the process, there has presented a shortage of physicians to manage this rise in demand. Now, with the passage of new legislation such as the Affordable Care Act, more patients have access to health care than ever before. Many experts have suggested increasing the utilization of Nurse Practitioners and Physicians assistants as a cost effective resource to tackle to rising cost of healthcare amid a physician shortage in America. Several studies have been performed to assess the viability of these options, to address the advantages and

The Affordable Care Act set forth millions of dollars to address the problems and concerns that are associated with existing physicians shortages. The Affordable Care Act also has provisions that are aimed to improve the education, ongoing training as well as to help with the recruitment of nursing, physicians, doctors as well as other health care personnel. In addition, there are provisions in place that help to increase workforces’ cultural competency, enhance faculty training of healthcare professionals, and diversity. The provisions also play a vital role because of the fact they are put into place to examine innovative reimbursement and care delivery models that highlight primary care services value and offer in improvement in the patient care coordination.

There are many aspects of a society that most individuals value and believe will always be around like government officials, police workers, firefighters and even physicians; what if there would be a shortage of one of these occupations? Most people would not believe this could happen, but unfortunately, this is reality for health professionals. In 2000 many experts thought the shortage was more of a myth, that there would be a surplus of specialists. At the time when the study was conduct the parameters that were used started from the 1920’s which were the different tasks a physician did throughout the day along with the time it took to complete these tasked that could be seen as “good” patient care. Later on experts decided to