...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...
Words: 5146 - Pages: 21
...growing scarcity in health care professionals in the United States, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), roughly 20 percent of Americans live in areas where there aren’t sufficient health care providers, sixteen percent have few dentist and 30 percent are in areas that lack mental health specialists. With a growing and aging population the demand for more physicians has increased around the U.S. These deficiencies of primary care and specialist have a major effect on patients. Per the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), a study conducted suggests that by 2025 the United States faces a shortage of 46,000-90,000 physician. In the article “Are There Enough Doctors for the Newly Insured?” by Michael Ollove, he indicated that the “federal government estimates the physician supply will increase by 7 percent in the next 10 years. But the number of Americans over 65 will grow by about 36 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau”. This means that the aging baby boomers are growing rapidly and are in need for medical attention which is creating a problem for the current health care workforce. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) have developed shortage criteria called the Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) and the Medically Underserved Area, to determine if an area of population has a deficiency in health care providers. Per the HPSA, there should be 3,500 people for each primary care provider; no more than 5,000 people...
Words: 376 - Pages: 2
...WEEK- 5 ASSIGNMENT HSM-541 HEALTH SERVICE SYSTEM AMERICAN HEALTH CARE ASSOCIATION: WORKFORCE By: Zainab Bohra KELLER MANAGEMENT SCHOOL Professor: Eric Oestmann Date of submission: 23 august 2015 Introduction The primary objective of AHA is promoting quality healthcare provision by all the medical institutions such as the hospitals, and it networks through the public policy system. It is made up of the professionals that provide information about the healthcare as well as an administration to health care providers and the public. It was founded in the year 1898 with the main offices in Chicago, Washington DC, and Illinois. Additionally, it provides the health care information and unrelated information to clinical treatments. However, it has been faced with critical issues throughout its operations in the health care sector in all the states (American Hospital Association, 1974). The key issues are limited service providers, price transparency, quality and safety of the patients, health care information technology, workforce, variations in the health care, working with the employees, teaching hospitals-medical education, emergency readiness, Ebola preparedness and post-acute care among other critical issues faced by American Hospital Association (Jonas, Goldsteen & Goldsteen, 2007). Workforce Over the operational...
Words: 1285 - Pages: 6
...The three negatives of the US’s health care delivery framework are shortage of health care personnel, poor quality of care and outcomes in rural aeries, and fragmentation in care delivery. Rural Americans make up 20% of total Americans. People living in rural areas are more likely to have poor health than those living in urban areas. For instance, rural individuals have a tendency to be older and have more than two chronic diseases, higher infant morbidity and mortality rates, and environmental and work related injuries higher than those in urban communities. In addition, rural areas have fewer medical services and health care providers compared to urban communities, which make difficulties for rural Americans in getting essential medical...
Words: 344 - Pages: 2
...centered care, that is created around a specific patient. The U.S Health Care System needs to be transformed, which will require development of new roles for nurses and many other healthcare positions. Nurses must recognize what this means for their specific role and what different educational changes need to be made. Nurses stepping into leadership roles will also be a necessary and vital piece to the success of nursing in the near future (Institute of Medicine, 2011). The introduction of The Affordable Care Act of 2010 has placed a new emphasis on changing the healthcare system. With focusing on the use of primary care, wellness and prevention, and transitional care, while decreasing the use of specialty and acute care. A major focus of the future plans is the need for nurses to use and practice to their full potential, based on educational level and training. When nurses use all of their training, competencies, and education, they will provide top-quality healthcare while reducing mistakes and promoting safety (Institute of Medicine, 2001). The U. S. currently has a problem with a primary care professional shortage. The need for more medical professionals is substantial. While in the past, Physicians made up a large amount of care providers, today the use of NPs and physician assistants has developed rapidly. The increase of advanced practice nurses needs to continue to rise in order to meet the guidelines of the Affordable Care Act, and promote the use of nurses in primary type...
Words: 1131 - Pages: 5
...Phillip Waite Final Paper: Value‐based Care and the Physician The change to a value‐based system of healthcare reimbursement is something that I find rather daunting and somewhat scary. The traditional fee‐for‐service system, with all of its flaws, was quite simple to understand—you pay for the care that is given and if you don’t want to pay more, take care of yourself outside of the physician’s office. But, I guess my fear and apprehension about value‐based reimbursement have their foundation in not fully understanding the change and not being able to foresee its impact far into the future. Now, nobody can predict the future, but as I’ve come to find out, that plays a big role in remaining profitable in a value‐based system. Despite my initial thoughts on moving from a fee‐for‐service system, I’ve come to believe that it is the right move, insomuch as it is forcing providers and organizations to focus on preventative care for their patients. Under a fee‐for‐service model, healthcare organizations and providers profited from the ailments of their patients. More procedures meant more money. Less and less thought was given to prevention because it wasn’t profitable. This is one of the factors that has led to an increase in healthcare costs over the years.1 Under a value‐based system, the physicians and organizations are incentivized to improve quality of care delivery and cut costs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has...
Words: 1668 - Pages: 7
...Health Reform Essay for Concepts in Health Admin Graduate Course With the 2010 passing of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), health care leaders are facing increased pressure to meet the demands of the reform. The implementation of the ACA expanded healthcare coverage to millions of Americans. This expansion of coverage meant that health care facilities needed to be equipped with enough workers to meet the large number of patients who would now be seeking medical care. However, prior to the ACA, the health care force was already facing a shortage of providers, such as physicians and nurses (Anderson, 2014). So, while health care reform was necessary, it came at a time when health care systems were already in a fragile place. In order for health care institutions to meet the challenges of the ACA and be successful in today’s society, it is imperative that they are equipped with administrators and leaders who “…have diverse skills and a different intellectual approach, as well as creativity, adaptability, and flexibility” (Cicatiello, 2000, p. 21). Prior to the implementation of the ACA, barriers to health insurance left approximately 47 million Americans uninsured (Garfield et al., 2014). At that time, quality health insurance was very costly. Many Americans were too poor to afford health insurance, but made too much to qualify for Medicaid. Additionally, many of America’s largest companies did not offer health benefits to their employees, even if they...
Words: 1298 - Pages: 6
...Economic Tools and Concepts The U.S. health system is set to enter into a new era with the full realization of the individual mandate as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2014. About 34 million people will enter the health care 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...
Words: 1365 - Pages: 6
...written are physicians and nursing shortages. This issue is very significant to our healthcare structure as it is vital to providing the appropriate quality of care to all that are sick and in need. This problem plagues the news and appears to be conversation on frequent basis. The article’s outlined perspective on Healthcare Workforce Supply and Demand issues with the critical healthcare professional’s shortages as a shifting end effect of the present healthcare reform. (Okrent, D., 2011). Whether the shortages are due to insufficient numbers of providers, or misdistribution of those providers, this however has been an intense debate among the analysts and stakeholders. However as an end result, it appears that elderly population make use of health services at far greater rates than the rest of the population. The high rates of health service used by the elderly in conjunction with the large spike with this specific group can be projected to cause a dramatic boost in the demand for health and long-term care services in the future to come. Continuous deliberation among professionals and specialist over enlarging the education realm, providing superior classes to accommodate more physicians, increase the amount of residency prospects; attract contributors to health professional shortage areas with benefits and bonuses, or all together alter the delivery care structure is ongoing. (Okrent, D., 2011). An aging health care workforce as well as an aging U....
Words: 1363 - Pages: 6
...Rural Health Care According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in recent years, concern for rural populations has emerged in Congress and other upper levels of government. The creation of the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) exemplified this new recognition of the significant challenges and difficulties facing rural residents in a rapidly urbanizing Nation. According to the 1990 census, there were over 61 million people living in rural areas. That equals a population greater than that of the UK, Spain, France or Italy in 1996. Rural America touches almost every state. A large number of the Western states have a majority of land which is defined as rural. Generally, non-metropolitan populations have higher poverty rates, higher unemployment rates, and lower educational backgrounds than those individuals living in metropolitan communities. These same residents in non-metropolitan areas are afflicted with a poorer health status. There are higher rates of chronic disease, infant mortality, accidental farming-related injuries, occupational hazards, and trauma mortality in rural areas when compared to those living in metropolitan areas. A compounding factor affecting these already poor indicators is the significant lack of access to health care in these rural communities. The barriers to access are due to a variety of factors. Many of the residents of rural America have limited financial resources to pay for their medical care. In addition...
Words: 3905 - Pages: 16
...Funding the Rising Cost of U.S. Health Care. BY Vilando. HSA500 November 15, 2015 Funding the Rising Cost of U.S. Health Care. The United States continues to spend significantly more on health care than any country in the world, however, even though with this statistics the U.S has a lot of uninsured and does not have the healthiest citizens. In this paper, opinions will be given on the rising cost of overall’s health care’s impact in the U.S economy, followed by a comparising and contrasting factors impacted by the new health care act, pros and cons of using the private insurance rather than using the new health care reforms and the cost associated with its implementation and access to different groups will also be discussed. Rising Cost of Health Care The cost of the U.S health care system is higher than any country in the world. Its efficiency is also under serious scrutiny. If it was not an emergency, most physicians would require insurance verification. Therefore patients will be delayed of treatment. Moreover, the health care system in the U.S should be redesigned in terms of prevention rather than treatment with people who are already sick. Insurance should not go higher for people that have pre-existing conditions or with more health risk. Also the emergence and new discoveries in the field of...
Words: 4666 - Pages: 19
...high cost of care, lacking or no insurance coverage at all, lack of services and lack of competent care in cultural and ethnic aspects. Barriers lead to hindrance gaining proper healthcare such as unresolved health treatment, hold ups in receiving adequate care, reduced preventive medicine services, financial inabilities, and avoidable hospitalizations. Access to care variates based on socioeconomic status, age, sex, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, and residential location and, somehow, even race and ethnicity. In America, access to health services surrounds 3 components in regards to coverage, services, and timeliness. Coverage helps patients into the health care system. Lack of coverage or none at all, those in this category are most likely to have poor health status, not likely to receive medical care, delay in diagnoses, and predominant to die early. Optimizing levels of access to health care services ensures a usual and ongoing source of care which leads to having better health outcomes, fewer discrepancies, and lower costs. Primary care managers, PCM, serves as an important source of care. PCMs...
Words: 1615 - Pages: 7
...profession thereby improving healthcare in the United States overall. Due to the many challenges being faced by the healthcare system the report was done to focus on the evolving healthcare system focusing on the need for changes in the nursing profession. The committee focused on three primary areas of concern in the health care system which are quality, access and value. There has been a shift in the health challenges facing the health care system. There is a increase in disease processes conditions such as diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, mental health which affects almost ever 2 Americans(CDC,2010a). These conditions are expected to continue (DeVol etal., 2007) with contributing factors such as diabetes. The aging population has seen a rise in the extensiveness of chronic illnesses. Census projections predicts the population of citizens older than 65 is expected to rise from 12.7 percent in 2008 to 19.3 percent in 2030 (U.S. Census Bureau 2008), due to the increasing life expectancy of the Baby Boomers. Projections from the U.S. census board projects that minority groups which now makes up one third of the U.S population will be the majority by 2042 and make up 54 percent by 2050 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2008). This diverse population incudes racial and ethnic groups, socioeconomic status, history and other cultural features. Health disparities referring to the inequalities faced by the socially disadvantaged groups either by race,...
Words: 1235 - Pages: 5
...The Affordable Care Act (ACA) expands access to coverage to millions of Americans, a goal health plans have long supported, but major provisions will raise costs and disrupt coverage for individuals, families, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. The broad market reforms outlined in the ACA take effect on January 1, 2014. Individuals and families purchasing insurance in the individual market will be guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, and their premiums cannot vary based on their gender or medical history. There will also be subsidies to help consumers afford the cost of coverage, and new health insurance exchanges will help consumers find the policies that best meet their needs. At the same time, other provisions take effect that will significantly increase the cost of coverage, such as the health insurance tax, minimum essential benefits, and restrictions on age rating. $52 billion in new taxes will be imposed on businesses by mandating that employers provide health insurance. New taxes on drug companies ($27 billion) and medical device makers ($20 billion), as well as new reporting requirements and regulations imposed on physicians, will make access to health care and services more costly and difficult for seniors under Obamacare.The cumulative impact of all of these provisions increases the likelihood that some individuals will choose to purchase insurance only after they become sick or injured, further increasing the cost of coverage for everyone...
Words: 1098 - Pages: 5
...Health Care Utilization HCS 235 October 30, 2012 Health Care Utilization The Affordable Care Act was signed into law March 23, 2010 by President Barack Obama; however, the constitutionality of the law remained in question. In a controversial 5-to-4 ruling, The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law on June 28, 2012. The ACA is thought by some as the United States health care rescue, and as its downfall by others. It is estimated that the ACA will provide new services to 64 million Americans, providing health care coverage to 32 million previously uninsured. In addition to providing new health insurance coverage, the ACA implemented several components that can expand access to health care. One policy change will allow single adults, who are in school to remain on their parents’ insurance until they are 26. Another policy prevents denying children health insurance due to pre-existing conditions, this same protection will be provided to adults beginning in 2014. Rural communities are now expected to have greater access to health care as a result of increased payments for physicians willing to relocate. Additionally, the National Health Service Corps expanded to provide more health care providers to underserved areas. Community health centers are also expanding to provide care to those with little or no income. As an incentive the government is also offering tax credits to small business owners in order to make health coverage more affordable for their employees. One aspect...
Words: 1461 - Pages: 6
