Specialists/primary care professionals: striking a balance

Area of Science:

• Healthcare policy
• Medical workforce analysis
• Physician training

Background:

• Evidence suggests an oversupply of medical and surgical specialists predates managed care.
• There is a concurrent shortage of generalist physicians and non-physician healthcare providers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address the imbalance in physician specialty distribution.
• To propose solutions for the surplus of specialists and deficit of generalists.

Main Methods:

• Discussion of economic principles and market-based solutions.
• Consideration of a national commission for training recommendations.
• Exploration of regional consortia for implementation.

Main Results:

• Market corrections for physician distribution are slow in voluntary systems.
• A national commission could provide data-driven recommendations on training numbers.
• Regional consortia offer a potential implementation framework.

Conclusions:

• Addressing physician specialty surplus requires strategic planning.
• A national commission is proposed to guide future physician training.
• Multistate regional consortia could facilitate the implementation of training recommendations.