The Physician Shortage Is Well Documented

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

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.

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

Baby boomer aging is one of the large causative factors of this increase in demand (Glicken & Miller, 2013, p.1883-1889). According to Glicken & Miller (2013), the elderly population will nearly double in the next fifteen years putting a strain on the healthcare workforce. Also, more than half of physicians have intentions on limiting care access with regards to Medicare patients. Many medical doctors are refusing to care for Medicaid patients. This is a result of the growing number of individuals now with the means to afford healthcare due to the

There will be an increase in budget deficit in the short-term due and due to the increased demand for primary care visits, we might experience a shortage 12,500-31,000 physicians by 2025

The Affordable Care Act has drastically changed reimbursement (and subsequently patient care) for better and worse. While healthcare has become more accessible, quality of care and doctor-patient interaction has decreased. Statistically, hospitals have seen an improvement in compensation, but this doesn’t include private practice and outpatient centers. Government-run healthcare is slow healthcare, and to make up for this physicians have to work faster and longer. My mom’s work as a physical therapy assistant has her working 10-12 hour days in the off season months of summer, and my own work as a secretary at her office opened my eyes to the consolidation of providers to get better reimbursements, which leads to fewer private practices. While

Americans will have insurance coverage. The US has an unequal distribution of the primary care, thus; the rural areas have been left with only few physicians. Many physicians prefer practicing in urban areas because of the lucrative advantage, better technology or demographic preference. Many sources including Green et al, of Anita Phigpen Perry School of nursing confirms that the reason for the shortage of physicians in the rural areas is due to the tendency of people in the rural areas being poorer, sicker and older . This segment of people tends to be uninsured, and physicians are attracted to urban and suburb areas where revenues are. Today with the ACA policies, people in the underserved area have better access to physicians, although the shortage persists. The US Department of Health and Human Services, states that to help strengthen access to the primary care workforce, the Affordable Care Act invests in health work force training, including: a $ 1.5 billion investment in National Health Service Corps Scholarship and loan repayment programs and $ 230 million over five years to primarily train medical residents in community-bases. However, do we have enough experts?

According to projections by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the nation will be short more than 90,000 physicians by 2020 and 130,000 physicians by 2025. Everyone deserves a better health maintenance, but sometimes there are not enough providers to make it happen. In the last two decades, the United States and some cities around the world have faced some serious problems because of the shortage in their health system structure. A shortage is when something in a certain area is not sufficient when it is the most desirable. That is the same thing that the country has experienced recently. There is a lack of physicians and nurses, who also characterize the primary care providers in the nation. The shortage results

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.

The overall health care industry has undergone fundamental change over the last decade. Most of the changes have occurred within the underlying business operation of the healthcare industry. Legislation in particular has had a profound impact on the health care industry. First, due to the Affordable Care Act of 2010, the nursing profession is undergoing a fundamental shift in regards to the patient experience. The U.S. health care system is now shifting the focus from acute and specialty care to that of primary care which requires a shift in business operations. Also, due primarily to that aging of the baby boomer generation, the need for primary car overall is shifting and will be needed heavily in the future. The last 10 years in particular has seen an increasing influx of retiring baby boomers that subsequently need care. A positive impact on the ACA legislation is that more individuals are now insured. As such, the need for primary care will also increase over subsequent years, particular within the minority population. This patient centric approach will require more care predicated on specific communities in a seamless manner. Furthermore, primary care physicians will be in high demand over the coming years.

Micheal, thanks for your post, I agree with you that physicians are burned out from the guidelines set by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Physician Quality Reporting System, Clinical Quality Measures, Electronic Medical Records and the new ICD-10 codes, when do they have time to be a physician. It is enough to drive one out of the seat of wanting to practice medicine when most of your time is dealing with the paperwork. Physicians are not wanting to accept new Medicare or Medicaid patients, it requires too much of their time. Many of our physician here the Mount Pleasant area have changed their practice to concierge medicine, which is a private service to private pay patients. This is where the physicians charge a flat rate to

When I imagined myself as a doctor, I saw a person that offered guidance rather than dictated. My patient’s values would be more important than mine. I wanted to know my patients personally and not as a number on a list I had to complete. I didn’t want to be the kind of doctor that saw someone for two minutes, scribbled on a prescription pad, and left. This paternalistic style of practice, where the patient has no authority, might have worked at a time when medical care was scarce, but in the US where a majority of people have access to medical care, the quality of the care is valued just as much as the treatment. With more and more people having access to healthcare thanks to the Affordable Care Act, I fear doctors would be spread out too

The potential shortage of physicians in the future is an aspect of medicine that causes me the most concern. In present day, many individuals are unable to see physicians due to lack of insurance or other problems. It worries me that in the future, even if we were to progress so that everyone would be able to have access to proper medical care, there may not be enough physicians to provide this care. There are projections that by 2025, the demand for physicians may exceed the supply by well over 40,000. I believe that it is important for the country to start now in finding new ways to try and decrease this gap as much as possible. While it may be impossible to completely eradicate the shortage, we can definitely find new ways to improve the

However, the shortage of primary care health professionals is as much a problem of distribution as it is of the workforce size, according to an analysis of data from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Therefore, the United States does not manage or actively regulate the number, type, or geographic distribution of its health workforce. Nevertheless, health care professionals choose how and where to work (Maldistribution of Primary Care Workforce Challenges Efforts”, para. 1-2). On the other hand, the United states has about 80 primary care physicians for every 100,000 people. Still, rural areas have 68 per 100,000, compared to urban areas, which have 84 per 100,000. Yet, the AHRQ data show that a total of 46,981 primary

Although Medicare-for-all seems like a viable option for our country’s ongoing battle with healthcare access and coverage issues, there are several tradeoffs that must be considered. From a healthcare provider’s perspective, universal coverage will significantly increase the volume of services demanded at any given point in time. If enacted, Medicare-for-all will permit millions of previously uninsured Americans to obtain coverage in a relatively short period of time. In turn, healthcare providers, who are already struggling to meet the increased demand of expanded coverage under the Affordable Care Act, will face an even greater influx of patients with the same number of resources. Each day, physicians will be required to see more patients than before, take on a larger care burden, and as a result, be faced with provider burnout due to increased mental and physical strain (Christopher, 2017). The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality maintains that there is a consistent relationship between overexerted, fatigued physicians and lower levels of care quality and patient safety (“Physician Burnout,” 2017).