Is over-specialization creating more problems than good in our American Healthcare system?
The purpose of this post is to help assist those with questions they have concerning their business or medical practice. The Callagy Law team is knowledgeable in many law practice areas and will frequently post topics ranging from Medical Revenue Recovery, PIP, Workers Compensation, and Commercial Insurance. We hope to have this blog shed a light on many common questions.
Cardiologists, Oncologists, Urologists. One could go on and on naming the different types of specialists that comprise the medical profession. Although it is comforting to know that should a medical emergency arise there are dedicated professionals with years of specialized study and experience to help with nearly any particular ailment, there is a dangerous trend emerging in the United States healthcare system. Not only is there a projected physician shortage in the coming decades, but there is an even greater shortage of non-specialized, primary care physicians.
Primary care physicians, as the name suggests, are the doctors we rely on for check-ups, physicals, and other general medical care. Alarmingly, fewer and fewer medical school graduates are choosing primary care for their residency training programs. To highlight this trend, between 1975 and 2010 the number of physicians in the United States has more than doubled, while during this same span there has been only a 10% increase in primary care physicians. This, coupled with a growing US population, has made it increasingly difficult to find a primary care physician.
There are a multitude of factors causing this trend. One factor is earning potential. During residency training, there is not a significant pay difference. But, over a lifetime a specialist could earn upwards of $10 million more than a primary care physician. A second factor is quality of life and prestige. To many, the prospect of working and living in cities like New York or Boston, at a prestigious hospital like New York Presbyterian or Massachusetts General as a top surgeon, is surely more alluring than working in Des Moines or El Paso at a local, rural hospital as a geriatrician. While there are additional problems, including federal residency funding, that feed into the primary care shortage, unless there are critical changes made in the US healthcare system this alarming trend will continue.
Thankfully, there are efforts on the part of many schools and legislatures to address the problem of the primary care shortage. Medical schools at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Washington, for example, offer rural medicine programs that offer incentives such as reduced tuition and preferential admission. Many states are also empowering licensed nurse practitioners (LPNs) to provide primary care to ensure that all state citizens have access to medical care regardless of location. While these efforts represent the sort of action needed to tackle the problem of overspecialization, there is much more to be done.
We hope you found the information provided in this article helpful to various questions you may have had concerning the healthcare industry. For information pertaining to our services for medical providers, please click here. Please note, Callagy Law has recovered over $185,000,000 for medical providers, and that number grows daily. Please free to reach out to Sean Callagy of Callagy Law at any time for questions you may have concerning personal and business matters. Callagy Law offices are located conveniently in Paramus, NJ. Beyond the scope of information, Sean Callagy has developed multiple areas of our healthcare legal practice and business coaching. Feel free to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn! Additionally you can subscribe to our daily videos on YouTube.
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