N502 Discussion 4
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Aspen University *
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502
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Medicine
Date
Apr 3, 2024
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docx
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Uploaded by BaronValor1962
There are many reason physicians choose a specialty over primary care, with the biggest reason being a bigger paycheck. Internal medicine doctors make $243,000 annually compared to orthopedic physicians who make $482,000 annually (Knight, 2019). Many physicians choose higher paying specialties in order to pay off their debt sooner. An easy solution to this problem would be to pay primary care physicians more. However, “set fees for Medicare and Medicaid patients distort the health care market” (Cohen, 2020). To overcome this obstacle loan forgiveness programs were created. In Maryland, where I live, they provide educational loan repayment funds to physicians who “serve a 2-year obligation in a health professional shortage area (HPSA) or medically underserved area (MUA), either in primary care or mental health” (
State Loan Repayment Program
, 2020). Physicians who meet the requirements for this program can get $50,000 a year. After the two years they can do an additional two-year obligation to give them a total of $200,000 towards their school loans. Even though these physicians may technically make less than specialty physicians, this incentive will help them pay their school loans off sooner. Another reason physicians choose specialty over primary care is due to the amount of time spent documenting. A recent survey among physicians confirmed primary care doctors spend more time on paperwork than other specialties (Knight, 2019). Primary care doctors are dissatisfied with how much time is spent documenting and not enough time with their patients. One solution to this problem could be to have non-physicians, like physician assistants, help in this burden. This would allow physicians to focus more of their time on the patient. There are many factors that result in physicians choosing specialties over primary care but there are also many solutions. Insurers could level the playing fields with reimbursements, governments could help incentivize certain fields with repayment programs, and employers
could help ease the burden of documenting. Many different contributors could help play a factor in easing the growing primary care physician shortage. References
Cohen, B. R. (2020, February 2). Doctors' Salaries Are Up, But Specialists Outpace Primary-
Care Physicians, New Data Show
. The Heartland Institute. https://www.heartland.org/news-opinion/news/doctors-salaries-are-up-but-specialists-
outpace-primary-care-physicians-new-data-show. Knight, V. (2019, July 3). American Medical Students Less Likely To Choose To Become Primary Care Doctors
. Kaiser Health News. https://khn.org/news/american-medical-
students-less-likely-to-choose-to-become-primary-care-doctors/. State Loan Repayment Program (SLRP) and Maryland Loan Assistance Repayment Program for Physicians (MLARP)
. Maryland Higher Education Commission. (2020). https://mhec.maryland.gov/preparing/Pages/FinancialAid/ProgramDescriptions/
prog_mlarp.aspx.
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