Comments on: Massachusetts primary care http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2008/08/massachusetts-primary-care.html medical blog Sun, 22 Nov 2009 07:50:13 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Anonymous http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2008/08/massachusetts-primary-care.html/comment-page-1#comment-87038 Anonymous Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:38:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2008/08/massachusetts-primary-care.html#comment-87038 Addressing medical school debt will only help years from now, if at all, when current students enter the physician workforce. The only effective measure now that would both retain current physicians and attract new ones to generalist medicine would be to substantially increase generalist pay from the payers controlled by the state. <br/><br/>Until they do that, they're not serious about fixing the primary care physician shortage. Addressing medical school debt will only help years from now, if at all, when current students enter the physician workforce. The only effective measure now that would both retain current physicians and attract new ones to generalist medicine would be to substantially increase generalist pay from the payers controlled by the state.

Until they do that, they’re not serious about fixing the primary care physician shortage.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2008/08/massachusetts-primary-care.html/comment-page-1#comment-87036 Anonymous Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:39:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2008/08/massachusetts-primary-care.html#comment-87036 How in the world are they going to enforce their dictum that UMass produce more students going into primary care?<br/><br/>This is absolutely ridiculous and shows how out of touch the political world is with the reality of healthcare.<br/><br/>The solution is simple: there will be more doctors going into primary care when the salaries of primary care doctors improve. Until then, any other suggestion, be it P4P (a gimmick), loan forgivenss (not enough) or "cost neutral" adjustments (improving pay for primary care by taking it from other deserving fields like surgery) are doomed to fail. How in the world are they going to enforce their dictum that UMass produce more students going into primary care?

This is absolutely ridiculous and shows how out of touch the political world is with the reality of healthcare.

The solution is simple: there will be more doctors going into primary care when the salaries of primary care doctors improve. Until then, any other suggestion, be it P4P (a gimmick), loan forgivenss (not enough) or “cost neutral” adjustments (improving pay for primary care by taking it from other deserving fields like surgery) are doomed to fail.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2008/08/massachusetts-primary-care.html/comment-page-1#comment-87035 Anonymous Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:17:00 +0000 http://clients.emmense.com/kevinmd/2008/08/massachusetts-primary-care.html#comment-87035 Increasing class size at UMass won't help. Although the purpose of the school was to churn out more primary care doctors to practice in the state, and there are some financial incentives in terms of loans for students to enter primary care, less than 10% of my class from UMass is actually working in primary care. As you state, it will only create more specialists.<br/><br/>The financial incentive at Umass for primary care is some tuition abatement; however, the amount I saved on tuition is less than $30,000, which would be easily paid off in a few months as a specialist. Increasing class size at UMass won’t help. Although the purpose of the school was to churn out more primary care doctors to practice in the state, and there are some financial incentives in terms of loans for students to enter primary care, less than 10% of my class from UMass is actually working in primary care. As you state, it will only create more specialists.

The financial incentive at Umass for primary care is some tuition abatement; however, the amount I saved on tuition is less than $30,000, which would be easily paid off in a few months as a specialist.

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