...system in early 2014, some with complex medical conditions that require the attention of primary care and specialty physicians (DeNavas-Walt, Proctor, & Smith, 2013). Despite this expected growth, this country is facing a physician shortage due to population growth, aging, and insurance expansion. The short supply has led to increased demand for physician services regardless of specialty or primary practice. According to some estimates, there will be a shortage of 91,500 physicians by 2020 with an increase in this figure to 130,600 by 2025 (AAMC, 2012). The projected shortage is equally distributed among primary care and specialties such as general surgery, cardiology, and oncology. This paper will discuss the physician shortage, describe two economic tools, and evaluate the physician shortage issue using the selected economic tools. Physician Shortage The future supply of physicians will not be able to keep up with demand for health care services. According to the Census Bureau, the population of Americans over 65 years of age will more than double between 2012 and 2060, from 43.1 million to 92.0 million (2012). It is a fact that this segment of the population has more complex health needs and utilizes health care services more readily than any other group. Though the physician workforce shows some marginal growth, with a projected increase in physicians of 7% in the next ten years, it is still not enough to satisfy demand (AAMC, 2012). Older patients require more time...
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... Identify and describe three reasons there may be a physician shortage rather than a surplus in the United States. The amount of medical schools has been steady and graduates have been limited by admission capacity The Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HHS) through a continuously approved legislation ask that “the Health Professions Education Partnerships Act of 1998 which gave the authority for the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee to study the personnel issues in medicine.” (Cooper, 2003) In a report by the” Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee (GMENAC) who predicted a doctor surplus in its 1979 report, and allopathic medical education has maintained an even level in its enrollment.” (Health and Human Services, 2011) The earlier statistical analysis of factors that were considered did not include the new technologies and the amount of medical specialist’s increase which has made changes to how the medical profession operates. The factors also did include the trend to have more salaried positions such as in the HMO market and the fact that more women are enrolling to practice medicine and enrolling in medical schools. These factors along with unanticipated population growth add to the shortage of medical practitioners in overall calculations that include rural needs for services. These factors remain in place about the future demand for physicians. The amount of growth in need for medically trained in...
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...reasons there may be a physician shortage rather than a surplus in the United States. Although previously America had a surplus in Physicians and medical professionals it is no longer the case now. The first reason for this shortage is that Congress, in its attempt to address the issue of surplus, commissioned the Council on Graduate Medical Education (CGME), which reported that by the year 2000 the expected staffing ratio of one physician for every 370 citizens was more than adequate and that the country would be well advised to scale back on residency funded programs. Also CGME believed that enrollment should be cut 15% in order to control physician supply, hence in retrospect why we have such a major shortage. The second reason is that America is an aging society and we do not have enough doctors to handle that demand. Patients over the age of 65 require significantly more direct physician care than younger patients hence the number of doctors in the field have not been able to handle the orders .Physicians themselves favor a more controllable lifestyle contend William Torrens(2010). In the academic year 2000-2001 nearly 46% of the incoming first year medical students were women (Tilden, 2001). Although the growing number of female physicians is a good sign for our society it also indicates that women do not work the same long hours as men due to family obligations. Identify and describe three factors that contribute to the nursing shortage in the United States ...
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...Alejandro Bahena ECON 545 – 10388 Business Economics Microeconomics Analysis September 21, 2014 Introduction The demand for physicians and health care services in the United States is determine by the quantity the public is willing to pay for the lowest price in order to benefit from their services. Several factors affect the demand for physicians. The needs and size of the population, economic hardships and the high prices they are faced to pay. The technological constrains related to the practicality of the demands from consumers. The last demand of health care physicians depends on the relation between the demand and supply current conditions in the market of service. Past projections show that the continuous shortage of supply and demand for physicians will continue to influence the policies and programs related to the health care systems. Because completing medical school and creating a new structure for physicians is time consuming, the USA needs to predict the needs of the physicians in advance. The shortage of physicians was the leading cause for the creation of new medical school in the country. . The important factors which will estimate the future demand of the physicians depends on 800,000 present physicians, millions of nurses and other health care workers, about 300 million patients, hundreds of health plans, thousands of health care facilities, thousands of employers in the industry, thousands of legislators and policy makers, and other factors such economic...
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...Background and History EMC struggled with multiple issues. These issues included operating over capacity, an outdated ED, not being equipped financially or structurally to handle the influx of patients, the lack of physicians available to care for patients, and the lack of follow through on ED protocols. This section will address two key issues pertaining to EMC. These issues are fast tracking the ED at EMC and the need for specialty physicians to care for patients. The average occupancy rate of the hospital is 50 percent. The emergency room was created for 16,000 visits but sees over 45,000 visits. EMC serves the medical needs of the local community, regardless of social, ethnic, or religious background. EMC’s customer base is a growing, aging, and culturally diverse population. Over half of the ED visits are by uninsured or underinsured patients. EMC was the last independent hospital in the area. Managed care was encroaching on the area, including Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser was set to make significant inroads to the EMC service area in the next 18 months. EMC expected the strong possibility to contract with or be acquired by Kaiser. An additional threat by Kaiser Permanente existed because they were planning to build a facility close to Emanuel Medical Center. With the implementation of EMTALA, hospitals were required to give access to emergency medical care for all regardless of the ability to pay. HMO’s and government programs lowered reimbursement rates to the hospital...
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...Econ 545 Micro Analysis Project 1 Business Economics 545 Fewer Physicians Project 1 INTRODUCTION Based in recent surveys, reports show a trending decline on the rate at which physicians move. Statistically, this may suggest the economy is preventing or affecting physicians from frequent job changes, or retirement. According to survey results, the move rate was reported as follows: 18.2% in 2008, 15% in 2009, 12.4% in 2010, and 11.3% in 2011. In as much as this reflects an obvious trend of lower move rate over the years, and may be attributed to a number of factors, it is however not enough scientific measure to ascertain the market supply and demand for physicians. PURPOSE: The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current position of physicians, and to establish an informed/detailed study of the trends. The research will also establish a theoretical framework of these trends, and their relatedness to the law of Demand and Supply with a focus on physicians. This review will among other things, institute recommendations. DEMAND DETERMINANTS The Law of Demand: As an initial approach, the analysis in this research paper will not be far-reaching if the concept of Demand is not critically examined. Demand has been defined in Economics as the goods and services people are willing and able to buy during a certain period of time at various prices, holding all other relevant factors constant. A simple way to explain this would be to use an everyday example of say - a café. If for instance...
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...DEMAND OF PHYSICIANS: In terms of quantity, it shows that people in the United States are willing to pay minimum prices to get healthcare. The demand for physicians is dependent on many factors. Some of the factors are but not limited to income of the people, population, behavior of the buyers, expectations about future prices and incomes. According to reports and past projection, there is shortage of physicians in the country. This directly influences the policies and prices of the current healthcare system. Due to this shortage, we have more medical schools in the country. The government has also been subsidizing admission to such schools. At present, there are about 900,000 physicians working in the market for 300 million patients or customers. So clearly, the population of customers is large. The price at providing healthcare has gone up due to scarcity of professionals and limited amount of income people can spend upon healthcare. The behavior of buyers is such that they want to spend as much less as possible on getting healthcare now, because they expect the price of getting healthcare to shoot up. So they want to save money now in order for rainy days, when they would really need it. Demand: Old 691400 New 814700 Health care costs: Old $16834 New $ 22615 PEoD = %change in QD/%change in price %change in price= 22615-19834/16834= .34 %change in quantity= 814700-691400/691400= .18 PeoD = .18/.34=...
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...as a physician. She also wanted information on where the best locations to practice medicine would be. Jenny knows that I am currently enrolled in a course in economics and has decided to contact me for information on the market for physicians. More specifically information on elasticity, economic profit and loss, pricing, supply and demand, and costs of production. To provide her accurate answers, I chose to educate myself on the subject matter With the information I provided, Jenny should be equipped with the resources she needs to make an informed decision on her potential career choice. The United States demand for health care services shows that citizens are willing to pay the minimum price for required services. Physicians demands varieson many different factors to include the needs of the population, some of the economic constraints of the people such as their income and prices of product, cultural considerations, and technological constraints related to the feasibility of what the consumers demand. The last demand of health care physicians depends on the interactions of supply and demand conditions prevailing in the market. There has been consistent shortages of physicians. This has ultimately influenced programs and policies of the the country in relation to health care in the past. It is very time consuming to train new physicians, which requires the nation to predict the future needs of the physicians. In years past, there have been considerable shortages of...
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...Health Care Professionals Shana N. Settle HSA-500 May 29, 2011 Dr. Kevin Williams Health Care Professionals 1. Identify and describe three reasons there may be a physician shortage rather than a surplus in the United States. There is no denying the fact that there has been a dramatic surplus of employment in a diversity of categories, in the health sector in the United States over the last 30 years, which is a astonishing reflection of the essential place health and health care possesses in the lives of Americans, yet traditional health care occupations- physicians, dentists, and pharmacists- have declined, some dramatically. In regards to physicians, the picture is not so evident. The number of physicians in the United States did increase rapidly over the last 40 years, but by the early 2000s there seemed to be a shortage (?) as some would argue. However, there have been many “cross-cutting forces that have affected the U.S. health care system in the last several decades” (Williams & Torrens, 2009, p. 269). One reason to assume this conclusion is the “more restrictive elements” of managed care. Patients and doctors, alike, have been dissatisfied with their limited choices, from tightly controlled reimbursement to ‘non-physicians’ control of their workloads, respectively. As a result, there has been a movement away from insurance arrangements back to coverage that more resembles fee-for-service plans, especially PPOs (Williams...
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...Identify and describe three reasons there may be a physician shortage rather than a surplus in the United States. One reason physician preferences now favor a more “controllable lifestyle”. This factor stems from the increasing number of women in the workforce, but it affects men as well. Generally, younger physicians seek a different lifestyle that allows for weekends off, limits on the number of hours worked per week, and other amenities that allow for activities outside the workplace. Taken together, these preferences have had and will probably continue to have the effect of reducing the amount of time available for patient care (Williams & Torrens, 2008 p.270). Secondly, within the general increase in the U.S. population, there exists the ever-increasing lifespan of Americans, with their attendant levels of chronic conditions. In 2000, 12.4 percent of the U.S. population was 65 years of age or older; in 2050, the figure is projected to be 20.6 percent. This change will produce a steadily increasing demand for physician services and a consequent increase in the need for physicians (Williams & Torrens, 2008 p.270). Thirdly there is also a factor of using physician substitutes or extenders in health care delivery. Such as nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, among others were increasingly used to provide primary care, in which there would be less pressure to increase physician supply. Another reason for shortage could be a relatively new movement by payers and...
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...sufficient physicians available to care for the aging population and the 31,000 newly insured if universal healthcare becomes available (Stanley, 2009). Healthcare human resource executives are also faced with the challenge as business strategist to work out a plan with their hospital to recruit and retain talented physicians. In 2006, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) requested an increase of 30 for U.S. medical school enrollment and for growth within Graduate Medical Education (GME) positions. Even a request of such measure would not solve the problem with physician shortage. Assistance from international countries like Canada with a surplus of physician is welcomed; however as a country we cannot depend on other national to resolve United States physician shortage. It is predicted that we will have a “shortage of 85,000 to 200,000 physicians in 2020 unless action is taken soon to increase the number from 25,000 physicians who graduate from United States medical schools annually. Also “shortage of physicians in rural areas will present an even greater challenge than for metropolitan areas, as fewer and fewer physicians” entering the medical profession is choosing a rural location for their practice. (Stanley, 2009) Problem Statement Physician supply is decreasing at a time when the demand for quality healthcare along with the number of aging patients is increasing. Hospitals and health care organizations are experiencing an increase in physician attrition...
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...Nonlapan Burimsittichai Ungkana Lukkanavej Econ545: Project 1 – Microeconomic Analysis January, 26, 2015 Introduction In the previous years we have been experiencing a shortage on the supply of physicians, issue that according to the projections will not be changing any time soon. Given this situation we could probably already answer the question and risk to say that it is a good idea economy-wise to become a doctor, seeing that at least for the next 10 years the supply will not be anywhere close to satisfy the demand. There’s many factors that affect this increase in demand such as aging of population, the Baby Boomers that want to remain active and look for and use more healthcare as well as the next generations after them. It is also important to mention that an increase on productivity of healthcare could reduce the gap between demand of supply, but after many years and different attempts almost nothing has been achieved, since healthcare has become more and more complex. Here is a little extract from AAMC website talking about the issue of physicians shortage of supply: The number of federally funded residency training positions was capped by Congress in 1997 by the Balanced Budget Act. The 26,000 residency positions available for first year trainees will not be enough to provide training for the students graduating from medical school as early as 2016. In addition, Medicare support of graduate medical education (GME) includes paying its share of the costs of training...
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...assist with the shortage of primary care physicians. The nurse practitioner can provide much of the same services as primary care physicians. These include diagnosing and treating acute and chronic conditions, order, perform, and interpret diagnostic tests, and developing treatment plans. A nurse practitioner joining a primary care practice would be able to be implemented within six months. The nurse practitioner would cost the practice at least $60,000 less than hiring a primary care physician, without lower quality of care for the current and potential patients of the practice. By adding a nurse practitioner position in the practice would lower overhead costs and show a breakeven in as little as six months of their joining the practice. A profit would be seen in as little as one year of joining the practice. The Project With the American healthcare system in major change due to healthcare reform and the increasing shortage of primary care physicians. Nurse practitioners are the answer to handle these challenges in a cost effective manner, while providing high quality care that equals that of a physician. There will be millions of newly insured in the near future, along with retiring primary care physicians and only 2% of graduating physicians choosing primary care in the United States. Nurse practitioners are able to step in immediately and provide quality care, where it will take years to educate enough primary care physicians to even help with...
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...three reasons there may be a physician shortage rather than a surplus in the United States. The number of physicians in the United States has increased rapidly in the last four decades showing about a 218 percent increase between the years 1965 to 2005. The Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee (GMENAC) reported in 1980 that there would be a surplus of physicians of 70,000 in 1990, and roughly 140,000 in 2000. But, by the early 2000’s some observers were raising the spectre of a physician shortage, especially among some specialty groups. Part of the response as to why there is a shortage lies in the way that differing methodologies and assumptions yield varying physician requirement and supply projections. The three reasons are explained as follows: 1. First, although managed care remains a formidable force in the organization and delivery of health care, its more restrictive elements have been blunted due to widespread physician and patient dissatisfaction, particularly with limits on choice. Medicine’s distaste of tightly controlled reimbursement and of non-physicians’ attempts to control their work fueled much of this backlash. The outcome of this has been a movement away from captioned insurance arrangements back to coverage that more closely resembles fee-for-service plans, especially preferred provider organizations. Physicians and patients seem to prefer choice to efficiency, which will add pressure for more physicians and is the first of several...
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...Doctor Shortage Impacts Rural Areas Jean Larsen Senior Project Kristi Hund March 1, 2011 Abstract The United States is experiencing a substantial shortage of physicians, which is creating a severe supply and demand problem in America. Citizens living in rural areas should receive the same quality of care as those living in urban settings. Substantial differences exist in quality and access to health care for persons living in rural America. The shortage of physicians in rural America calls for immediate attention and change, as the inadequate supply of physicians is affecting the quality of patient care. The life expectancy of persons living in rural America is actually declining due to treatable conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. These illnesses could be managed with proper medical treatment. This paper addresses these issues and recommends two solutions. Healthcare is in crisis in many countries, not least of which is the United States. We hear on the news how health care providers are unable to provide medical care to an increasing number of chronically ill and the aging population. There are a number of systemic failures, none is more difficult to correct than the basic lack of human resources. There are simply not enough physicians to service the needs of the population. The problem is intensified in rural areas, where specialized physicians may not be found within several hundred miles. The healthcare...
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