Also, decreased reimbursement from the carriers, and increasing malpractice premiums are other factors in the shortage of PCPs.. Because Medicare and insurers fix fees, the only way primary care physicians can survive is to take on more and more patients. This in turn may mean spending less time with the patient.
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Other factors that may be contributing to the primary care physician shortage include individual burning out before retirement, fewer medical students choosing to pursue primary care, a lagging supply of medical school seats, and (at least in the US) a low supply of postgraduate training positions.
Many reasons have been cited for the decreased interest in the field of primary care; among the most prevalent are low specialty prestige, workload, and lower salaries [5,6].
“There is a current shortage,” explains Dr. Judy Wright, a family physician and cohost of the Queens on Call podcast. “The system is already characterized by exponential growth of the elderly population, health care costs and demands, and the obvious health care disparities.”
“Primary care physicians act as the ‘gatekeeper physicians’ of medicine,” Dr. Wright explains. “They assist a patient in maintaining health, and they can treat a large number of patient conditions, but they can also determine when a condition is at a level that a referral to a specialist is necessary.”
A large portion of the physician workforce is nearing traditional retirement age, and supply projections are sensitive to workforce decisions of older physicians. More than 2 of 5 five currently active physicians will be 65 or older within the next decade.
According to public opinion research conducted in September 2019 by Public Opinion Strategies for the AAMC, 35% of voters said they had trouble finding a doctor in the past two or three years. This is a 10-point jump from when the question was asked in 2015.
1763) was introduced in the U.S. Congress to provide increased Medicare support for an additional 3,000 new residency positions each year over the next five years.
A study from 2000 conducted by primary health care advocates James Macinko, Barbara Starfield , and Leiyu Shi attempted to quantify the health impact of PCPs within a population.
By itself, increasing PCP supply will not fill the gap in demand. Most projections incorporate a PCP supply cap at about 8 percent growth by 2020, which only amounts to about 20,000 more PCPs added to the 207,000 currently in the work force.
NPs do not undergo residency training, but are typically trained to perform the same tasks as PCPs and possess substantial clinical training.