News

Before any healthcare reform, U.S. doctor supply is already strained

SAN FRANCISCO -- It's a phrase people are loath to hear when they're looking for a new primary-care doctor: Not accepting new patients.

Some parts of the country already lack an ample supply of general internists, pediatricians and family physicians, forcing patients to drive further or wait longer for care. If a comprehensive health reform bill passes and extends coverage to millions of uninsured Americans, many are asking if there will be enough primary-care doctors to handle the increased demand for medical services.

``I think we'll see some effect like Massachusetts did, but I'm not expecting there will be chaos,'' said Lori Heim, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a family physician at Scotland Memorial Hospital in Laurinburg, N.C.

Heim was referring to the statewide health-insurance overhaul Massachusetts began phasing in in 2006, which provides a test-case example. It succeeded in lowering the state's uninsured rate to 2.7 percent, by far the lowest in the nation, but also exacerbated problems in areas that already had primary-care shortages.

``It's not that it gets worse; it gets more noticeable,'' said Brian Rosman, research director for Health Care For All, a Boston-based advocacy group that is tracking the overhaul's effects. ``What it did do is spur state authorities to pay attention to this issue.''

>> Continue reading (opens in a new window)

Source: The Miami Herald, November 23, 2009

Health Reform Needs Stronger Focus on National Workforce Strategy

WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dr. Steven A. Wartman, president and CEO of the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC), urged Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to ensure that health reform create an integrated, coordinated national health workforce policy by incorporating four AAHC recommendations into Senate health reform legislation. "... House Speaker Pelosi released a health reform bill that now incorporates the first (and most important) of these recommendations," Wartman said in a letter to Reid this week. "The AAHC urges you to incorporate all four recommendations in any health reform legislation scheduled for a Senate floor vote."

After reviewing pending health reform bills, the AAHC recommends that four modifications be made to any health reform legislation voted on by the House and Senate:

  • Make development and implementation of an integrated, coordinated, strategic national health workforce policy the primary objective of any advisory committee or national commission.
  • Amend the list of enumerated issues to be addressed by the advisory committee or national commission to include the harmonization of conflicting national and state-based regulatory and private self-regulatory standards (e.g., licensure, scope of practice, accreditation).
  • Constitute the advisory committee or national commission as a continuously available policy research and consultative resource, not simply as a body of external experts that convenes from time to time to make periodic recommendations.
  • As an interim step until an advisory committee or national commission is fully functional, create a national health workforce coordinator to assess current federal capabilities and prepare agencies for their interactions with the committee/commission.

"The nation's current health workforce policymaking and planning infrastructure is inadequate to meet existing health workforce challenges, much less the additional challenges posed by health system reform," asserted Wartman, noting that health workforce policymaking historically has been fragmented among hundreds of federal, state, and private entities. "Many of the problems facing the health workforce - including, but not limited to, shortages in many health professions - are a consequence of this lack of coordination because it limits policymakers' ability to address urgent national needs in an integrated, comprehensive, and effective manner," he concluded. Full text of the letter is available on the AAHC website: http://www.aahcdc.org/policy/letters/HWF-HR_to_SML_Reid_11032009.pdf.

The AAHC (www.aahcdc.org) is a national non-profit association dedicated to advancing the nation's health and well-being through leadership in health professions education, patient care, and research. For a topical discussion of health-related news, see the AAHC blog, www.HealthPROSe.org.

Source: Association of Academic Health Centers