U.S. Federal Government attempts to promote primary care training

The federal government of the United States is concerned that only 30-33% of physicians are in primary care practice and not more than approximately 15-20% of recent medical graduates choose primary care. Moreover, the distribution of interns and residents in primary care in recent years is 40% and after "branching" it is realistically only 25%. The federal government's goal through legislative intervention is to increase the pool of U.S. medical graduates to enter primary care from the current level to at least 50% by the turn of the century. To attain this goal, the government is depending on health care reform legislation and making changes in federal legislation that reimburses graduate medical education through direct and indirect Medicare payments. The federal government hopes to produce incentives to increase the pool of primary care physicians and to place disincentives on subspecialty training by altering direct and indirect Medicare payments in favor of primary care training programs; by limiting residency and fellowship slots; and by removing limits on direct payments at ambulatory care sites for training, including non-hospital settings. There is concern among medical educators that these changes in current legislative interventions will not increase to 50% the numbers of medical graduates choosing primary care careers. Accredited residency and fellowship programs need to assess projected manpower needs immediately to justify their positions for achieving a balanced physician workforce for the twenty-first century.