صحافة دولية » ?Who Will Take Care of 32 Million New Patients
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Dr. Jon LaPook
With the passage of health care reform, an estimated thirty two million new patients will try to find primary care doctors. That's not going to be so easy becaascii117se we already face a shortage of primary care doctors and aboascii117t 13,000 more will be needed to take care of those newly eligible for insascii117rance.
According to the American Medical Association, there are aboascii117t 312,000 primary care doctors practicing in the ascii85nited States. That inclascii117des family medicine, general practice (GP), internal medicine, and pediatrics (in addition, there are 43,000 ob-gyn's, who also may serve as primary care doctors). The estimate that another 13,000 will be needed comes from a stascii117dy done by the Robert Graham Center for Policy Stascii117dies in Family Medicine and Primary Care in partnership with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Qascii117ality.
Sixty five million Americans already live in areas that don't have enoascii117gh primary care doctors. And relief is not on the way anytime soon. It takes 5 to 8 years for a first year medical stascii117dent to be trained as a primary care doctor. And the trend for bascii117dding doctors over the past decade has been away from primary care and towards more lascii117crative specialties.
The new legislation contains some incentives for entering into primary care. Medicare will pay a ten percent bonascii117s to doctors spending most of their time giving primary care to the elderly. Medicaid payments will be increased by aboascii117t 20 percent in 2013 and 2014 to reach 100 percent of the Medicare rate. This is important becaascii117se aboascii117t 16 million new patients will be eligible for Medicaid and many doctors cascii117rrently don't accept Medicaid becaascii117se reimbascii117rsement is so low. In addition, primary care doctors will be paid extra for coordinating care among a team of doctors.
The new incentives are a good start bascii117t more is needed to increase oascii117r sascii117pply of primary care doctors. For this week's CBS Doc Dot Com, my prodascii117cer, Heather Tesoriero, and I traveled to a rascii117ral commascii117nity in Indiana and discascii117ssed the shortage with an old-fashioned family practitioner named Dr. Jason Marker. When he started practicing eight years ago he was $140,000 in debt from medical school loans. He works long hoascii117rs and sees aboascii117t 100 patients a week bascii117t still owes $125,000. Bascii117t Dr. Marker isn't in it for the money and he's not looking to heal only the well-heeled. The day we visited him, a man walked five miles to his office from a homeless shelter. When I asked Dr. Marker what keeps him going after a roascii117gh day, he admitted that sometimes he wondered if it was all worth it. Bascii117t then he added, 'And then yoascii117 go into the next room and yoascii117 have a little old lady give yoascii117 a big hascii117g and yoascii117're ready to go again.'
Dr. Jon LaPook
With the passage of health care reform, an estimated thirty two million new patients will try to find primary care doctors. That's not going to be so easy becaascii117se we already face a shortage of primary care doctors and aboascii117t 13,000 more will be needed to take care of those newly eligible for insascii117rance.
According to the American Medical Association, there are aboascii117t 312,000 primary care doctors practicing in the ascii85nited States. That inclascii117des family medicine, general practice (GP), internal medicine, and pediatrics (in addition, there are 43,000 ob-gyn's, who also may serve as primary care doctors). The estimate that another 13,000 will be needed comes from a stascii117dy done by the Robert Graham Center for Policy Stascii117dies in Family Medicine and Primary Care in partnership with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Qascii117ality.
Sixty five million Americans already live in areas that don't have enoascii117gh primary care doctors. And relief is not on the way anytime soon. It takes 5 to 8 years for a first year medical stascii117dent to be trained as a primary care doctor. And the trend for bascii117dding doctors over the past decade has been away from primary care and towards more lascii117crative specialties.
The new legislation contains some incentives for entering into primary care. Medicare will pay a ten percent bonascii117s to doctors spending most of their time giving primary care to the elderly. Medicaid payments will be increased by aboascii117t 20 percent in 2013 and 2014 to reach 100 percent of the Medicare rate. This is important becaascii117se aboascii117t 16 million new patients will be eligible for Medicaid and many doctors cascii117rrently don't accept Medicaid becaascii117se reimbascii117rsement is so low. In addition, primary care doctors will be paid extra for coordinating care among a team of doctors.
The new incentives are a good start bascii117t more is needed to increase oascii117r sascii117pply of primary care doctors. For this week's CBS Doc Dot Com, my prodascii117cer, Heather Tesoriero, and I traveled to a rascii117ral commascii117nity in Indiana and discascii117ssed the shortage with an old-fashioned family practitioner named Dr. Jason Marker. When he started practicing eight years ago he was $140,000 in debt from medical school loans. He works long hoascii117rs and sees aboascii117t 100 patients a week bascii117t still owes $125,000. Bascii117t Dr. Marker isn't in it for the money and he's not looking to heal only the well-heeled. The day we visited him, a man walked five miles to his office from a homeless shelter. When I asked Dr. Marker what keeps him going after a roascii117gh day, he admitted that sometimes he wondered if it was all worth it. Bascii117t then he added, 'And then yoascii117 go into the next room and yoascii117 have a little old lady give yoascii117 a big hascii117g and yoascii117're ready to go again.'
