Obama Budget Reveals Concern About Physician Shortage

The mismatch between the number of patients and the number of physicians available to treat them is not just a concern of hospital and medical group leaders. The administration revealed its concern about the physician shortage in its 2015 budget.

The President’s fiscal year 2015 budget includes $5.23 billion over 10 years for a new competitive graduate medial education program that will train 13,000 residents in primary care and other high need specialties. In its first year, the new program would spend $100 million to support pediatric training in children’s hospitals.

In addition, recognizing that there is an immediate shortage of providers willing to take a substantial numbers of Medicaid patients because of low reimbursement rates, the administration proposed extending increased payments for primary care services delivered by certain physicians by one year, through 2015, with modifications to expand provider eligibility to additional primary care providers and better target primary care services increate payments to Medicaid providers for one year. The idea would cost the government around $5.44 billion.

Finally, the administration wants to increase spending on the National Health Services Corps, a program that helps new primary care providers fund their medical education through scholarships and loan repayments in exchange for serving at sites set up to treat the poor, such as community health centers. By allocating $3.95 billion to the program over the next six years, the administration hopes that the number of new primary care providers taking part in it would nearly double from the current 8,900 to 15,000.

It should be noted that no one, not even the White House, expects the President’s 2015 budget to pass in Congress. However, the budget revives discussions about Federal spending and offers an opportunity for the Democrats to lay out their priorities ahead of the midterm elections.

As the Affordable Care Act expands the number of Medicaid recipients, the administration likely sees the need to ensure that these newly covered patients have a reasonable chance at timely access to a doctor. Otherwise, the lack of access will only produce more fodder for critics of health care reform.