The Massachusetts Medical Society released its 2011 Physician Workforce Study this week, showing critical and severe physician shortages in eight specialties - a sixth consecutive year of shortages of primary care physicians - and physicians’ concerns about participating in accountable care organizations.
The eight specialities reporting shortages were dermatology, family medicine, general surgery, internal medicine, neurosurgery, orthopedics, psychiatry and urology.
The study confirmed that the state faces difficulty in recruiting and retaining physicians and that the fear of being sued has a pervasive, negative influence on the practice of medicine by causing physicians to alter or limit their practice.
“We still see severe shortages in primary care and certain specialties, difficult recruitment, a fear of litigation that affects access and availability and dissatisfaction with a practice environment that continues to deteriorate,” said Lynda Young, MD, president of the Massachusetts Medical Society.
For the average healthcare consumer this “means longer wait times to get to see their primary care physicians. For specialty care, if you are in a large metro area, you may have a long wait, but you’ll get to see anyone you want,” continued Young. “If you are in an area with a severe specialty physician shortage, you might have significant travel time.”
The 2011 study is the Society’s tenth annual comprehensive look at the physician workforce in Massachusetts and includes responses from 1,071 practicing physicians.
“What is new in this report are the reported concerns of many physicians to participate voluntarily in a system of global payments and accountable care organizations,” said Young.
“The biggest thing is that no one knows what an ACO is going to mean to them,” said Young. “Most of it is that doctors aren’t familiar with it and don’t know what it is yet.”
“Physicians who are self-employed are less likely to want to go into an ACO because it could mean closing their practice or integrating with a larger practice,” added Young. “Seventy percent of employed physicians and 80 percent of doctors at community health centers say they would go with an ACO. They are already working in an ACO concept, and they like it.”
Key study findings include:
· Eight of 18 specialties studied have been found in short supply, two fewer than last year. Three were classified as critical: internal medicine, urology and psychiatry.
· Internal medicine and family medicine (primary care specialties) are experiencing critical and severe shortages, respectively, for the sixth consecutive year.
· Among the six non-primary care specialties in short supply, four are under particular labor market stress: urology, dermatology, psychiatry and neurosurgery.
· Substantial percentages of physicians say they are unlikely to participate voluntarily in either global payment programs or accountable care organizations.
· Physician recruiting remains difficult in all five regional labor markets across the state.