Physician shortage limits even insured patients' access to care

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Aug 20 2009

CBS News reports that just having insurance coverage "doesn't guarantee access" to health care, because there is s shortage of primary care doctors to provide treatment. "Baystate Medical Center is the second busiest emergency room in Massachusetts. They treat over 100,000 patients a year, but here's the thing: according to Dr. Niels Rathlev, who runs the ER, a quarter of them don't need his services." Rathlev says it would be "more appropriate" for those people to see a primary care doctor. "'The majority of patients who are frequent utilizers of the emergency department actually have insurance,' Rathlev said. 'They have a primary care physician, but they choose to come to the ER because they don't have access.'"

The U.S is short more than 16,000 primary care doctors, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. "About 26,000 new doctors enter the workforce each year, but only 6,500 enter primary care. One reason is that starting salaries for primary care doctors are a lot lower than for specialists - like in radiology, cardiology and urology" (Gupta, 8/18).

www.kaiserhealthnews.org

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Posted in: Healthcare News

Tags: Cardiology, Doctor, Endoplasmic reticulum (ER), Health and Human Services, Health Care, Primary Care, Radiology, Urology

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We want to see a specialist, whatever we have

Cleaves M. Bennett MD says:

August 20, 2009 at 2:05 PM

Primary Care Physicians are the gate-keepers to expensive specialty care. Specialists order lots of tests and procedures, prescribe the newest, most expensive medicines and then refer their patients to other specialists. Most patients want to see a specialist, whatever they have. There is no shortage of Specialists. Many PCPs will not take new Medicare, Medicaid or SCHIP patients. The problem? Reimbursement rates are too low. I am a retired doctor. I called up my PCP for an annual checkup in August. His first opening was in November. Everyone is complaining about the high costs of health insurance.Healthcare insurance in America is too expensive for the same reasons that flood insurance is so expensive in New Orleans and hurricane insurance is too expensive in South Florida. Too many people need to use it too often. The only way that health insurance gets less expensive is if/when Americans in very large numbers start taking much better care of themselves. We’ll know that is happening when drug stores start going out of business, and the wait to see your doctor falls to less than 1 week. Don’t hold your breath.

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Primary Care Physicians are the gate-keepers to expensive specialty care

Cleaves M. Bennett MD says:

August 20, 2009 at 3:56 PM

Specialists order lots of tests and procedures, prescribe the newest, most expensive medicines and then refer their patients to other specialists. Most patients want to see a specialist, whatever they have. There is no shortage of Specialists. Many PCPs will not take new Medicare, Medicaid or SCHIP patients. The problem? Reimbursement rates are too low. I am a retired doctor. I called up my PCP for an annual checkup in August. His first opening was in November. Everyone is complaining about the high costs of health insurance. Healthcare insurance in America is too expensive for the same reasons that flood insurance is so expensive in New Orleans and hurricane insurance is too expensive in South Florida. Too many people need to use it too often. The only way that health insurance gets less expensive is if/when Americans in very large numbers start taking much better care of themselves. We’ll know that is happening when drug stores start going out of business, and the wait to see your doctor falls to less than 1 week. Don’t hold your breath.

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