Combine high cost of living with this, and no wonder they’re having trouble recruiting:
Massachusetts continues to decline as a place to practice medicine, the Massachusetts Medical Society reports today. The deteriorating environment has led to a shortage of physicians and reduced access to care that are a cause for concern as the state implements its new healthcare law, the group warns. . .. . . Low reimbursements for services, administrative hurdles such as pre-authorizations for imaging tests and prescription drugs, and increasing costs of operating a practice were cited as problems local doctors face.
Related posts:
- Massachusetts learns about the primary care shortage the hard way
- Physician shortage in Boca Raton
- My take: Physician salaries, the Massachusetts trap
- Is there really a physician shortage?
- Can the Massachusetts health reform plan be replicated nationally?
- Let’s focus on the primary care shortage
- MinuteClinics: Reflects "the sorry state of primary care in America"
KevinMD.com on Facebook
{ 6 comments }
I am a military doctor and looking for a job. Will finish with the military in APR2008. I spoke with a practice up in MA recently and it does not look good. All of the cited problems in the article plus other things not mentioned. My wife and I will be heading South…
So is Massachusetts losing physicians or gaining physicians? Scanning the want ads doesn’t tell you much, as maybe the population is simply growing fast and new facilities are being built.
Why are they not telling us the numbers that matter?
I believe MA has the highest per capita population of physicians of any state in the US. It certainly is far above the national average.
I don’t have real numbers, but there seems to be an extraordinary amount of groups in my specialty looking for new partners for a medium sized state like MA. Additionally, per capita data is misleading in MA due to the large number of training hospitals in Boston. Look outside and at the fringes of commuting distance to Boston, and you will find a growing scarcity of surgical specialists.
Dartmouth studies show that more doctors = more care = higher costs. Keynes suggested that Say’s Law (Supply creates its own demand) was not applicable in cases of economic Depression, but he didn’t say it never applied.
“more doctors = more care = higher costs”
This equation may be correct under a hybrid/socialized system where the cost of care is paid through a third party. Basically what we have with Medicare/Medicaid and HMOs which are the dominant payors in MA. Under such healthcare models, demand will always far outstrip supply. Therefore, the only way to decrease costs in socialized/hybrid systems is to ration care. I suppose the physician shortage in MA can be considered a form of backdoor rationing of care. I am sure not at all the intention of the insurers.
Comments on this entry are closed.