Primary care doctor shortage worsening across U.S.
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- Опубліковано 25 вер 2023
- Across America, primary care physicians are becoming increasingly hard to find. Doctors told NBC News’ Anne Thompson the number of physicians is not growing fast enough to keep up with an aging population.
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#Doctor #Shortage #PrimaryCare
I am a physician (not primary care) and the problem is simple: primary care docs are woefully underpaid. Every year there are tons of unfilled primary care spots because nobody wants to do it. It doesn't pay enough.
Hospitalist here. Never even considered outpatient primary care because of the low pay especially compared with the amount of med school debt I’m in. Plus for most PCPs I know, their job doesn’t stop at 5 pm. They still answer patient calls, lab results, etc long after office hours, plus the continual prior auth process and documentation required. Plus the push to see higher and higher patient loads from the administration. A ton of PCPs I know are still doing documentation at like 9 pm at night.
I’ll take my shift work any day. Although honestly even on the inpatient side, most of us are planning on either cutting back hours or leaving the field entirely prior to 50.
are they? the average doctor in america makes around 250 to 300k a year. thats a massive salary. i think tons are old now and retiring and fewer doctors exist now
@@alexmartinez-og8guPCPs are the lowest paid doctors, they come out with a mountain of debt, cost of living is higher than ever, all while insurance companies are making them take on higher and higher patient loads in order to earn their salary, which translates to working well over their 9-5 mon-fri hours. After 12 years of schooling it's not unreasonable to want to be able to afford a home, lets be honest.
I wouldn’t consider the USA because of the culture of suing and high malpractice payments
@@alexmartinez-og8gu not a massive salary when you owe 400k for your education. Also, not a massive salary when you compare it to your specialist counterparts and the number of patients you have to see---not worth it imo. I rather specialize and see less patients and make more money. Increase the pay for PCP to 400k and this will be fixed quickly.
Healthcare corporations keep getting larger and larger and focus on money rather than patient care and the big picture. CEOs make 10 million a year (ie Ascension), but say they are too broke to pay for primary care doctors who don’t make them as much money as surgeons and other specialties.
No shortage of dermatologists, or radiologists, or cardiologists. Know why? They get paid.
Be nice if the insurance companies would stop demanding so much out of these doctors. The documentation is insane and not necessary. The end result poor patient care and lack of providers. When are they going to wake up?
But, but, this only happens in countries with socialized medicine like Canada and the UK.
Whom also have shortages of PCPs. 🙄
I practiced in the US for 13 years as a pcp. The USA does NOT have a shortage of primary care physicians. They have a distribution problems as the video confirmed to you NYC alone has 4 times the total amount of physicians in the state of Alabama. Because every doctor wants the best access to schools for their kids and best job opportunities for their spouses or partners. The American health care system increases PA and NPs as direct competitors to primary care physicians and wonder now why medical students dont choose primary care as a specialty. I moved back to Canada and opened my own practice, here even in Montreal, the shortage is real, people are dying without access to care.
Really, let’s talk about residency slots available, this was made by changes in funding in 1990 by Medicare
My doctor retired in June of this year. The office used to have 8 FT doctors and 1 nurse practitioner. Down to 3 FT dr.'s. The last doc I saw said their leaving because their pay isn't enough here in PA. It's crazy the wait times also if you need a non life threatening appointment. Usually 6 months or more if you try to schedule in advance.
My office the appointments are out to 7 months for non life threatening checkup. It's insane. Everyone I talk to says the same thing.
Do you know whether they left medicine or just that office? What careers are some of them leaving medicine for?
@@Maverickgoudayeah i want to know what careers also so i can leave and make some money 😂😂
@@tedjonston777 I thought with all of their training, physicians would be underemployed in nearly everything else medical/health. Idk what happened to the reply, but someone answered: Maverick Cuzmany physicians have the option of doing research studies, consulting with big corps, working parttime with a hospital, or doing some telehealth thing with a big Internet clinic. Or just retiring early altogether if they have enough money.
Forgive all debt for primary care physicians after 3-5 yrs. Med school plus undergrad debt is too much, like who do they expect will want to takevn that debt burden
And accept more students into medical school
Docs go into other specialties so they can afford to pay off those loans.
@@sarahhagle7217 which is why it should all be forgiven on 3 yrs. I also think their undergrad loans should be included too
You need to pay primary care physicians more!!❤
All most all specialists in medicine are fully trained primary care specialists, don’t pay twice for the services that can be provided by 1 doctor. Every cardiologist,nephrologist,gastroenterologist,oncologist,rheumatologist,endocrinologist,neurologist is a fully trained primary care specialist…..let them perform primary service before being paid for sub speciality care. This is simply fraud.
Well, there's certainly no shortage of high medical costs!
Tell me what is cheap nowadays?
@@andresmattos7541nothing is cheap anymore.
That's not on doctors. It's on greedy admins, insurance and big pharma
10 years? Try 11 at a minimum... not counting 100s of thousands $ in debt.
This is brilliant and a VERY REAL trend happening all over the US. I recently posted a series of videos on my channel explaining how the US healthcare system has collapsed and the ramifications it is having on patients and healthcare providers. I'm a family medicine MD turned medicolegal consulting physician and believe me, things are about to get much worse. Thank you NBC for shining some light on this tragic phenomenon and I'd be 100% down for an interview to discuss this topic as I am in a very unique medical position!
There is definitely a shortage of physicians taking Medicare in Eugene & Springfield Oregon. It is really difficult to find a medical group that is accepting new patients!
Either forgive their loans or pay them more…it’s that simple. Also the issue is not residency slots. Plenty of family medicine residencies looking for good applicants, med students just aren’t applying to those programs because why go through a decade of hard training to be underpaid, overworked and undervalued.
Wait six months for a five minute appointment. 🤷♂️
This is sad. Where do you live? Canada?
Just lost my PCP also. The state I live in has a dire shortage of PCP’s also. It’s a prevalent problem across the USA.
Get rid of the requirement to have an undergraduate degree. Just a waste of time, and adds to student debt. Maybe instead go for a 5 year degree
Exactly. In some third world countries, to be a nurse is one year practice of studying after HS and pass a test. Are those nurses worse than US nurses? I don't believe so. They treat patients daily and efficiently. They are third world due to politics and construction.
Private equity strikes again!
Same problem all over the world
Why?
The trillions spent on the medical industry also went almost entirely to pharmacidical companies and middlemen and not doctors. A survey conducted by AMN Healthcare in 2022 of 15 large metro markets revealed the average time to see a physician was 26 days. Almost 50 percent of doctors report that they feel burned out, according to a 2024 Medscape report
For profit health-care. America, where we worship $$$$$$$$$$$
So doctors should become monks and work for free?
my doctor looks at me from across the room and doesn't come close, useless for the most part
Takes 4 months to get an appointment with my primary.
What happens if you don't pay for something...?🤔
It’s going to get worse for those in red states.
There is no shortage of PCPs. Most specialists eg cardiologists, gastroenterologists etc are fully trained in primary care. This is a duplication of service and hence fees.. Make these specialists do primary care or don’t pay twice for same service.
It's almost like we need free college education.
No. The problem is that people are making the same or more creating tik tok or youtube videos
If it’s “free” then who’s paying for it?
NBC maybe give some advice on what to do if you end up without a PCD. I'm on insulin, where do I go to my refills until I can find a PCD
Do you see an Endocrinologist for your diabetes?
@@Kitty8791 I did when I lived in Nebraska but here in Maine since covid I'm lucky to get into my PCD. I have coronary disease and in the 4 years since I've been here not even a cardiologist has she sent me too
@@sandyallen1523 Diabetes increases the risk of heart disease. Would your former Endocrinologist still be able to Rx for you? Are you still insured? You need a new Endocrinologist & Cardiologist! Did you ask them for possible references in ME, given your move? Otherwise, you'll have to call some Urgent Care centers or you're gonna wind up in the ER for hyperglycemia, which isn't ideal. However, there are folks that travel to Canada to get cheaper insulin so that may be another option in your case for now.
@@Kitty8791 I was on SSDI but when you turn full retirement age they automatically put you on regular SS. I don't know if it's that or something to do with covid but my care has gone down hill big time
@@sandyallen1523 I don't really know about SSDI vs. SSI. However, if you're retirement age, you should have Medicare, which means insulin should be capped at $35. You need access to your specialists. If your PCD & their staff isn't helping you, is the clinic part of a larger organization or hospital system? If not, maybe contact American Diabetes Association for some assistance with advocacy to get a referral?
I don’t understand why we have a doctor shortage. Half of Americans don’t believe in the science of medicine. I have noticed however, there is an over abundance of churches. Aren’t those prayers working for them?
There's a good percentage of us who believe in science but distrust pharmaceutical companies and the drug pushing drs they hire. So I don't know what percentage I fall in but I'm hoping the lack of drs is a sign that young people are not willing to compromise their ethics integrity for someone else's profit. Our health care system is garbage and needs an overhaul
Sad to be honest. People are tired and not making enough, there’s a shortage of doctors all over Ga. I don’t know how the next years will look in the land
We just have to keep trusting in God he is the only one can bring us through this
The shortage is real because it's programmed that way. Doctors don't start out until in 30s. They make $400K a year and that's peanuts for them. So they probably work 20 years then plan to retire at around 50s. Start out late and retire early. While other workers work their butts off at early as 16 and retire at 67. Then we have idiots elites control people's lives by limiting number of the residents per year.
It takes a freaking long to become a doctor, and the Malpractice is still the third leading death in America. Just sad!
Medical Schools have engineered this shortage by restricting enrollment because they demand an optimal profit making environment.
No, you don't know what you are talking about. As a physician, I can tell you that the bottleneck is residency spots. That's the training you have to do AFTER medical school. Residency is funded by Medicare and Congress has hardly expanded funding in recent years. Even if medical schools doubled enrollment next year, it would change nothing because those medical students would not be able to find residency spots. You cannot practice without residency.
@@rusinoe8364
The Medicare funding that limits residency spots that you mentioned was lobbied for by the AMA to restrict the number of trained physicians entering the work force, in order to create an artificial shortage to ramp up salaries. The AMA has fought to maintain their monopoly over medical education and impede progress for decades. Get rid of organizations like the AMA the monopolistic control and you might actually see an increase in physician graduates.
You know the answer.
So obvious, So sad that you can't come up with the Obvious Answer.
It's about selling prescriptions, not health
So doctors should work for free for you?
@@andresmattos7541 I don't want their help
they dont pay them enough thats why
Bring from India,Nigeria,Philippines😂
Maybe at least one of them can diagnose my tapeworm.
On the plus side , the few we have are expensive and barely competent. USA! USA! We're #1! We're #1. 😂
I've come across so many neurotic incompetent physicians it's crazy.
As a physician, I invite you to never go to your incompetent doctor again.
Where do you hide money from a surgeon?
Tape it to his kids.
Why have a PCP, they just send you to Urgent Care or the ER when you have a cold and need to be seen.
@@M_A_A_A_A_Anot true, many PCP offices have an xray available.
Maybe if your PCP is an NP or a PA.
first
Primary care docs are useless anyway. Waste of $120 per visit 🙄
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6435370/
Educate yourself before insulting some of the hardest working and least appreciated physicians out there!