Physician Shortage: A Case Study

The independent action of medical school, the teaching hospitals, the American Board of Medical specialties and ACGME affects the number, preparation and type of physician and even the distribution of the specialties within the physician workforce. Per our text, there were predictions that either physician shortage or physician oversupply. Regardless of the increase in physician shortage or physician oversupply, the geographic variation in physician location versus the physician numbers is always a problem. There is a continued low supply in less attractive rural and inner-city areas that most medical graduates do not want to take. With foreign medical graduates, proper clinical assessment and training before entering the residency, there was
Some specialty doctors earn up to three times as much as their primary care counterparts. Insurers and the government have significant influence on reimbursement and fee scales for physicians. They determine, based on a set of criteria, what should be and what will be paid for physician services. The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) should encourage medical schools to endorse primary care to their students. It can develop and implement the primary care medical programs to the medical students. The insurance companies are known to reimburse reduced amounts for the primary care services. They can emphasize primary care by increasing their reimbursements. Due to the mismatched ratio of primary care versus specialists 60:40, federal and state policies encouraged the training of more primary care physicians (Sultz & Young, 2011). A master plan, which includes specific distribution of primary care vs specialists in each geographic location of the country is need. This can be done by all the stakeholders getting together and design a master plan. The shortage of primary care physicians can be lessened by integrating nurse practitioners and the physician assistants (HRSA,