Health care provider movement increased through COVID-19

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Healthcare Workforce Studies
• Public Health Policy

Background:

• The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the healthcare sector, leading to concerns about workforce stability and attrition.
• Understanding health workforce dynamics is essential for maintaining healthcare access and quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze post-COVID-19 healthcare provider movement using Medicare data.
• To identify trends in provider migration across states and between organizations.

Main Methods:

• Utilized two public Medicare datasets: Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS) and Doctors and Clinicians.
• Tracked provider movement from 2017 to 2023, focusing on the period after the onset of COVID-19.
• Analyzed movement patterns by state, organization, specialty, and profession.

Main Results:

• Observed an increase in state-to-state provider movement following the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Documented an initial spike in physician movement between April 2020 and March 2021.
• Found variations in movement across different medical specialties and professions, with some, like family physicians, showing increased inter-organizational shifts.

Conclusions:

• Healthcare provider mobility has increased in the post-COVID-19 era, evidenced by novel data analysis.
• Real-time tracking of healthcare workforce movement is vital for understanding workforce changes and informing policy.
• Monitoring these trends can help ensure adequate workforce distribution and mitigate growing health disparities.