The American Academy of Family Physicians recently revealed that the number of US medical graduates opting the stream of primary care and family medicine has increased since last four years. This is great news for numerous Americans especially for those citizens who are going to insured newly under Medicare and Obamacare in the coming years.
The news would relief the experts of the industry who predict that the number of primary care physicians would not sufficient to meet the medical needs of the citizens. Critics are of the opinion that family medicine in contrast to more specialized stream requires treating the patients in a comprehensive way that includes almost everything from making a diagnosis; treating a broad range of ordinary illnesses and taking preventive health measure that would enable to prevent the requirement for more specialized care in the future.
The vice president for medical education at AAFP, Dr. Perry Pugno stated that this report indicates that the medical students realize the importance of primary care, which is perhaps the foundation of healthcare. Perry further informed that the number of students selecting family medicine as well as the attendance at the AAFP’s National Conference for Family Medicine Residents and Medical Students has increased in recent years, which signaled the new trend of primary healthcare career.
Perry in his statement also expressed that the increase in the number only indicates that the scenario is changing gradually; however, it is not adequate. On the other hand, he expected that demand would grow radically in the coming years as a result of the expansion of the insurance coverage and the aging of population of the nation.
Analysts of healthcare industry worried that America is perhaps moving towards the direction where the nation would face widespread shortage of doctor that may challenge the process of offering primary care to numerous citizens of America especially after more number of people become insured to receive these types of facilities in 2014 under Obamacare. According to Association of American Medical Colleges, presently the country has the shortage of almost 13,000 doctors that would predict to be almost ten times by 2024. However, the new report arise optimism although critics opined that still this is not enough to fulfill the need in future.
Nonetheless, the surge in family medicine is definitely good news for Medicare. According to the reliable source, the number of doctors deny to Medicare patients has raised three times between 2009 and 2012 as a result of insecurity over reimbursement rates. On the other hand, a recent survey revealed that the number of US doctors accepting new Medicare patients had increased between 2007 and 2011 by almost 33 percent.
It is worth to mention over here that in response to Obamacare, most of the medical schools are reforming their ways of teaching that lay stress on comprehensive care emphasized by the law and also changed their educational model that earlier encouraged the physicians to selects the specialized professions as it enable to earn more.