The physician shortage could reach 86,000 doctors by 2036, of which nearly half of the missing doctors could reflect shortages in primary care. One reason is demographics. The average age of physicians is 47 for women and 55 for men. Many of the older practicing physicians are among the Baby Boomer generation, who will be retiring soon and need care for themselves as they grow old. Another reason for the shortage is a 1996 federal law capping the number of graduate medical education training slots that Medicare will fund.
Category: Direct Primary Care
Monday Links
- How we benefited from the 2017 (Trump) tax cuts.
- Two (pandemic-related) doomsday predictions that never happened: a child care crisis and women leaving the labor force because of lack of child care and paternity leave.
- Another (Covid-related) doomsday prediction that never happened: one-in-ten- Americans are at risk of being evicted.
- Raw milk is dangerous; so why are sales surging?
- Kamala explains inflation: “Because of the Inflation Reduction Act … we are dropping trillions of dollars on the streets of America right now.”
- When donating blood is better than a payday loan.
The AMA Can’t Figure Out How to Squeeze Telemedicine into an Outmoded System of Payment Codes
The revisions to remote physiologic monitoring and remote therapeutic monitoring codes were considered at last week’s meeting of the American Medical Association’s CPT Editorial Panel, which includes health care professionals and representatives from medical specialty societies, hospitals, payers, and government. After discussion, the panel decided to postpone a vote on the merits of the revisions while various updates proposed during the meeting could be incorporated. The next editorial panel meeting is in September.
Source: STAT: Health Tech
Privately Insurance Pays Much Higher Hospital Prices than Medicare Does
The reality is that hospitals find that few uninsured patients can afford to pay their prices, who are often saddled with debts they cannot pay. The debts are often written off as uncollectable. Uninsured patients are not a significant source of income for hospitals. Third party payers are.