Everyone likes to complain about health insurance costs but none of that matters if we don’t have providers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot understand why this isn’t being shouted from the rooftops. Pretty soon it won’t matter what kind of insurance you have or if we have a single payer because there won’t be enough doctors.

There is a fire burning at our door but it isn’t getting the notice it deserves. Of course the most vulnerable will bear the brunt of this but it’s gonna creep up into the middle and upper middles classes too.

“ According to new projections published today by the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), the United States will face a physician shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036.
“Given the new findings, it is clear that both sustained and increased investments in training new physicians are critical to mitigating projected shortfalls of doctors needed to meet the health care needs of our country,” said AAMC President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD. “Most importantly, if additional investments critical to increasing the supply of physicians fail to materialize, projected shortfalls of doctors will be larger than presented in this latest report.”
The new study, The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections From 2021 to 2036, was conducted for the AAMC by GlobalData Plc. This analysis was conducted in 2023 and includes multiple supply and demand scenarios. It was updated with the latest information on trends in health care delivery and the state of the health care workforce, such as data on physician work hours and retirement trends.
By comparison, the shortage projected in the new report is smaller than the findings demonstrated in the last report published by the AAMC in 2021. The difference is due to a new set of scenarios based on hypothetical future growth in the number of medical residency positions nationwide. The new scenarios demonstrate the positive impact on physician supply if states, teaching health systems and hospitals, Congress, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continue to build upon their investments in graduate medical education (GME).
“Without funding beyond current levels, the graduate medical education growth trajectories hypothesized in this year’s report will not materialize,” Skorton cautioned. “The new data show a smaller projected overall shortfall, demonstrating that this strategy can work if we continue to invest in the physician workforce. The medical education community and policymakers are making real progress in our efforts to meet the projected health care needs of our communities, but we must not be complacent. We must continue to work with Congress to build on their recent bipartisan investments in Medicare-supported graduate medical education.”


“In addition, the AAMC examined and found that if communities underserved by the nation’s health care system could obtain care at the same rate as populations with better access to care, the nation would have needed approximately 202,800 more physicians as of 2021. This is more than five times the magnitude of current shortfall estimates based on current utilization.
Because these estimates look at alternatives to current utilization, these estimates were excluded from physician shortfall ranges, which are all based on current utilization patterns.”

Source: https://www.aamc.org/news/press-releases/new-aamc-report-shows-continuing-projected-physician-shortage

Yep maga wants to suffer horrible deaths

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, we all are going to die anyway. Why even bother with healthcare?

We don’t have healthcare, we have sickcare. Our current system is doing tremendous harm.

The vast majority of wellness is beholden to the ‘patient’ - learn to eat well, be active and exercise, have good relationships and practice gratitude (or something to provide mental stability, there are many options ), and don’t do any risk taking behaviors.

[Anonymous]

I’m a physician and I understand the gripe about physicians not working enough. But it’s not true. We are being pushed to seeing more and more patients with less time, more paperwork, fighting insurance left and right and all with less support. If we work for a hospital we are being treated like a factory worker, our experience and training are being minimized.

I work 3 days for a hospital system, 1 day for a small rural community clinic, and 1.5 days for a private practice. I do this to get variety, to get experience in more of the business aspects of medicine, and because I fear being completely owned by a big healthcare organization that is run by insurance companies, CEOs, and no physicians. I despise it. So you may be calling to try to
Schedule certain days with your doc and find them not to work there on those days but it doesn’t mean they are slacking off. They are probably trying to figure out what’s best for them and their lives.

[Anonymous]

And totally agree that the healthcare system isn’t at up for preventative care, which is maddening for physicians. The insurance companies fight tooth and nail to pay for preventative care care and the. Again for much needed sick care. They are atrocious.

[Anonymous]

Immigrants will take the jobs Americans don't want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m curious what kind of doctors the prior two pps know? The ones I know work a ton.

NP here, but the docs in my family medicine practice are like this. 2 days in 1 office, 1 day in a second. That seems to be it.

It's not like they are also surgeons, so they can't be doing surgery on a 4th day.

I can't see the practice "giving" everyone a full day for charts. But maybe? That still only comes to 4 days.

I called for a physical last week and they gave me a date more than 6 months later.

How do you know the schedule of every doctor in your practice? It seem like maybe you are looking for things to gripe about.
It's your insurance company that is ruining healthcare FWIW.

Because when I call to say I'd like Dr. Jones, the response is "Dr. Jones is in This Office on Mon & Wed, and in Other Office on Tuesday." Then I asked about Dr. Smith and it was a similar response.

Even Dr. Marshall said to me, "I work the most here at 4 days a week."

So you have no idea what Dr jones is doing the other two days but you assume he’s off? I mean you have no clue. The receptionist doesn’t need to tell you his schedule. You’re ridiculous.

Just curious - what is your background?

Attorney - Why?
It's like not understanding why an attorney wouldn't be in client meetings face to face the entire time they are "working".

[Anonymous]

My FIL is a healthcare worker. Now retired and with a chronic illness but working part time as a contractor.

During his career he worked full time for the state and ran a weekend practice serving primarily Medicaid enrollees. He worked so much. I am appalled people on this thread are complaining that some doctors (e.g. women with young kids) are working part time. Smh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My FIL is a healthcare worker. Now retired and with a chronic illness but working part time as a contractor.

During his career he worked full time for the state and ran a weekend practice serving primarily Medicaid enrollees. He worked so much. I am appalled people on this thread are complaining that some doctors (e.g. women with young kids) are working part time. Smh

Right?!?! And that they are “owed” doctors working for them. It’s appalling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And totally agree that the healthcare system isn’t at up for preventative care, which is maddening for physicians. The insurance companies fight tooth and nail to pay for preventative care care and the. Again for much needed sick care. They are atrocious.

All the preventive care stuff is covered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And totally agree that the healthcare system isn’t at up for preventative care, which is maddening for physicians. The insurance companies fight tooth and nail to pay for preventative care care and the. Again for much needed sick care. They are atrocious.

All the preventive care stuff is covered.

You have no idea. Doctors spend hours on the phone every week arguing with insurance companies who fight every test and medication.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anecdotally, every single one of my doctors works only 2-3 days/week, and they are all young- in their 30s and 40s. My older doctors have all retired, save for one in her 50s who quit medicine abruptly. She was the best doctor I’ve ever had.

I think we either need more medical school slots and residencies or some kind of requirement of working 5 days/week for x number of years if you’re going to take a US residency slot.

I've been saying for years that medicine is the new lifestyle profession. All of my friends from college who went to med school work part time now and still have enough income to pay for nannies, nice houses, nice vacations, etc. Medicine has always been high paying (and get out of here, doctors who are going to insist that it's not high paying because they have to pay for medical school -- show me your house). But now it's also cush in terms of hours.

I think if you require working 5 days a week for x years, fewer will go into medicine. Plus, plenty need maternity/paternity leave and then decide to reduce hours after that. It's very expensive paying off med school loans. Most of those I know who became part time quickly were from wealthy families. The ones who had loans only did it if the spouse was a high earner.

Certain professions are particularly rough like obgyn where lawsuits are out of control (some justified, but not all) and they pay an insanely high malpractice insurance rate.) Battling with insurance companies is exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AI can do a lot to save this problem. So many people see 5 specialists before finally seeing the correct doctor to treat a condition. Imagine if more people were directed to the correct specialist, how many appointments would free up.

Imagine you could head into your annual physical with your labs already analyzed by AI and a list of questions to ask. Efficient! Less messages back and forth.

Etc. Etc. Note none of these examples use AI to replace medical care, although I could frankly see AI taking over some things like radiology.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And totally agree that the healthcare system isn’t at up for preventative care, which is maddening for physicians. The insurance companies fight tooth and nail to pay for preventative care care and the. Again for much needed sick care. They are atrocious.

And the horrible prior authorization symptoms drives physicians away from the business.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And totally agree that the healthcare system isn’t at up for preventative care, which is maddening for physicians. The insurance companies fight tooth and nail to pay for preventative care care and the. Again for much needed sick care. They are atrocious.

All the preventive care stuff is covered.

You have no idea. Doctors spend hours on the phone every week arguing with insurance companies who fight every test and medication.

If they are spending hours arguing about basic preventive care services then they aren’t coding things correctly. Either the doc or their coder isn’t very knowledgeable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And totally agree that the healthcare system isn’t at up for preventative care, which is maddening for physicians. The insurance companies fight tooth and nail to pay for preventative care care and the. Again for much needed sick care. They are atrocious.

All the preventive care stuff is covered.

You have no idea. Doctors spend hours on the phone every week arguing with insurance companies who fight every test and medication.

If they are spending hours arguing about basic preventive care services then they aren’t coding things correctly. Either the doc or their coder isn’t very knowledgeable.

Insurance companies use PE-funded outfits like Carelon to deny deny deny. These companies exist to wear down physicians.

But you know all this, PP.