Healthcare News and Trends
The Future of Family Medicine
July 19, 2018
By
Jennifer Larson, contributor
No one
can predict the future, but family medicine physicians and leaders have high
hopes for their specialty over the next several years.
They envision that more
people and organizations will recognize and embrace the value of primary
care--and its providers.
They hope that health
insurance companies and other payers will align their payments and reimbursements
to family medicine physicians and other primary care providers accordingly.
They expect that more family
physicians will share their experiences with medical students and residents and
encourage them to consider a career in primary care.
And every
family medicine physician can be an active part of achieving these goals,
according to Glen Stream, MD, MBI, president and board chair of Family Medicine
for America’s Health (FMAHealth), a collaboration
among America’s top family medicine organizations.
Stream
likes to quote management consultant, educator, and author Peter Drucker: “The
best way to predict the future is to create it.”
“We have
to band together as colleagues and advocate with health plans and to employers
and governments to get them to understand the need to look at primary care
differently and pay for it differently and better,” he said.
FIND top family
medicine jobs
across the U.S., with Merritt Hawkins.
Physician shortages and demand for family
physician jobs
According
to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in May 2017, there
are approximately 126,440 family medicine physicians in the country today. Most
are based in physicians’ offices; in fact, family physician jobs in medical
offices account for more than 83,000 of the total.
But will
there be enough family physicians in the future?
In spring
2018, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) predicted that the
physician shortage could range from 42,600 to 121,300 physicians by 2030. Primary
care physicians, including those who practice family medicine, represent a sizeable
chunk of that shortfall.
Thus,
family physicians continue to be in demand.
For the 12th consecutive year, family
medicine physicians topped the list of Merritt Hawkins’ most requested
recruiting assignments, according to the 2018 Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives, although the overall number has declined in recent years.
The Merritt Hawkins team reports strong demand
for primary care physicians at a growing number of settings, including
physicians trained in family medicine who work at urgent care clinics or
telemedicine-based practices. Family nurse practitioners have also been climbing the
list of the most requested candidates on Merritt Hawkins’ annual review.
The AAMC’s
2018 report predicted that demand for physicians will increase in the long run,
with more emphasis placed on achieving population health goals such as helping
patients reduce excess body weight; improve control of their blood pressure,
cholesterol and blood glucose levels; and stop smoking.
These types
of goals are directly in line with the type of care that family medicine
physicians provide.
Shifting payment models could benefit family
medicine
Family
medicine physician David Hatfield, DO, and his colleagues with the Hatfield Medical
Group in Arizona already focus on population health management and value-based
healthcare delivery, so a shift toward value-based payments is a positive move
for their type of practice. It acknowledges and rewards them for what they do
to help people live healthier lives, while cutting costs.
The
value-based care model is solid because it’s based upon collected data, noted
Jim Schafer, who serves as population health strategist for Hatfield Medical
Group. “Value-based care isn’t going away,” he said.
In the
future, payment models could be refined to acknowledge everyone’s need for
primary care while differentiating it from insurable events, suggested Stream.
He
explained that people need ongoing care—including prevention and wellness—that
starts at birth and continues throughout their lives. Many also need consistent
management of chronic illnesses that tend to develop with age.
Payment
for this type of ongoing primary care could be separated from insurance-based
payment for events, like care for a person who was injured in a car accident and
needed trauma services or suffered a stroke and needed rehabilitation.
“We are
advocating for a greater understanding of how primary care can help with not
just individual people and families, but communities and the whole country-and
for the payment system to recognize that,” said Stream.
If
payment is better aligned with the care that family physicians provide, it
could be an incentive for more young doctors to consider this specialty, and
possibly make a dent in the predicted shortage. That could strengthen the
primary care workforce.
Hatfield wants
young doctors to know that they can make a real difference in people’s lives if
they choose to practice family medicine.
“If you
love relationships, then go into primary care,” he said.
Where will family medicine jobs be?
So where
will those future family physician jobs be?
An
ongoing trend toward physician employment, and away from private practice
ownership, may continue to affect family medicine physicians.
An
updated study on physician
practice arrangements
released by the American Medical Association (AMA) in May 2017 noted that it’s
becoming less common for physicians to own an independent practice.
The study
found that practice ownership for physicians declined from 53.2 percent in 2012
to 47.1 percent in 2016. At the same time, a growing number of physicians took on
employed positions; that percentage grew from 41.8 percent in 2012 to 47.1
percent in 2016.
MERRITT HAWKINS offers more career opportunities and job placement services for physicians and
advanced practitioners across the U.S.
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