According to new data published June 11 by the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges), the United States could see an estimated shortage of between 37,800 and 124,000 physicians by 2034, including shortfalls in both primary and specialty care.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted many of the deepest disparities in health and access to healthcare services and exposed vulnerabilities in the healthcare system,” said AAMC President and CEO David J. Skorton, MD. “The pandemic also has underscored the vital role that physicians and other healthcare providers play in our nation’s healthcare infrastructure and the need to ensure we have enough physicians to meet America’s needs.”
Specialty Area | Shortage Range |
---|---|
Primary Care (e.g. family medicine, general pediatrics, geriatric medicine) | Between 17,800 and 48,000 physicians |
Nonprimary care specialties | Between 21,000 and 77,100 physicians |
-- Surgical specialties (e.g. general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedic surgery) | -- Between 15,800 and 30,200 physicians |
-- Medical specialties (e.g. cardiology, oncology, infectious diseases, pulmonology) | -- Between 3,800 and 13,400 physicians |
-- Other specialties (e.g. anesthesiology, neurology, emergency medicine, addiction medicine) | -- Between 10,300 and 35,600 physicians |
The seventh annual study, The Complexities of Physician Supply and Demand: Projections from 2019-2034, was conducted for the AAMC by the Life Science division of IHS Markit, a global information company. This analysis, conducted in 2019 prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, includes supply and demand scenarios and was updated with the latest information on trends in healthcare delivery and the state of the healthcare workforce, such as data on physician work hours and retirement trends.
“Physicians and other health professionals dedicate their careers to keeping people healthy and caring for us when we are sick. During the past year, these individuals and their families have made enormous personal sacrifices as they responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, and we owe them an immense amount of gratitude,” Skorton said.
In his testimony during a recent congressional hearing on addressing the dire healthcare workforce shortage, Skorton noted that the issue of increasing clinician burnout, which has been intensified by the pandemic, could cause doctors and other health workers to cut back their hours or accelerate their plans for retirement.
Other key findings from the report include:
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, physician shortages were being felt by patients across the country. In 2019, the U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration estimated that an additional 13,758 primary care physicians and 6,100 psychiatrists would have been needed to remove Health Professional Shortage Area designations for areas with primary care and mental health shortages. According to public opinion research conducted by the AAMC in 2019, 35% of survey respondents said they or someone they knew had trouble finding a doctor in the past year or two. This is a 10-point increase from when the question was asked in 2015.
At the end of 2020, Congress took an important step to address the physician shortage by adding 1,000 new Medicare-supported graduate medical education (GME) positions—200 per year for 5 years—targeted at underserved rural and urban communities and other teaching hospitals nationwide, ending a nearly 25-year freeze on Medicare support for GME. Bipartisan legislation recently introduced in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2021, would build upon this historic investment and help expand the physician workforce by adding 2,000 federally-supported medical residency positions annually for seven years.
“Addressing the physician shortage requires a multipronged solution that starts with educating and training enough physicians to meet America’s needs and includes improving access to care, diversifying the physician workforce, and ensuring our nation is prepared to address current and future public health crises,” Skorton said. “Now more than ever, the nation must make a long-term investment in the healthcare workforce. The time to act is now.”