“In just five years, the shortage of doctors in the United States will be almost 63,000, according
to a report from the Association of American Medical Colleges Center for Workforce Studies.
That number is expected to hit 130,600 by 2025.”
-DOTmed from the AAMC
This policy memo addresses the current and projected shortage of primary care health
professionals in light of population dynamics and health care reform. We identified three
different scenarios: worst, likely, and best, and made recommendations to encourage the “best”
result. Those recommendations include:
- 1. Lowering tuition or offering tuition reimbursements for those who enter primary care
fields or practice in poor urban and rural communities
- 2. The adaptation of electronic medical records and “medical home” style delivery of
coordinated care
- 3. Adopting a model of primary care in underserved areas that would effectively be a
smaller medical home comprised of nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians, and others
who manage care on a coordinated basis.
- 4. Working with organizations such as the AMA and ANA to work with the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (divisions of the Department of Health and Human
Services) to increase health insurance primary care reimbursements and to make clearer,
more logical distinctions about the scope of practice of different types of providers.
- 5. A competitive grant model for primary care incentives similar to “Race to the Top” in
PPACA where, essentially, the federal government could solicit proposals for reforms
and projects from states and educational institutions and then evaluate these proposals
based on a specific rubric. Even though the government would only be able to fund the
top few applications, many states and schools would be committing to changing existing
practices and implementing innovative new programming.
With specific, practical, evidence-based policy recommendations the primary care needs of
Americans can be adequately met, but it will require a great deal of preemptive effort on behalf
of medical educators, policymakers, and health care providers in order to provide quality care
and better patient outcomes.
