Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) recently introduced legislation that would help address the growing physician shortage problem by bringing more doctors-in-training to Florida and other states with shortages. Floridas growing population and aging baby boomers are leaving many patients, physicians, and hospital administrators concerned about maintaining access to healthcare.
Specifically, the “Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2007” (S 588) would expand the number of physician training positions in 24 states with shortages, including Florida. A state is considered to have a shortage of resident physicians if its ratio of resident physicians per 100,000 population is below the national median level of 25 per 100,000 people. A recent study by the Associations of American Medical Colleges ranks Florida 43rd among states with federally-funded medical residency positions, with 17 residents per 100,000 people. Ten years ago, Florida’s ratio of physicians to population was above the national average. Today, Florida is among the states seeing the slowest growth in physician supply. A major reason for the slow growth in Florida is the lack of physician residents. If passed, Florida hospitals would gain 347 new positions more than any other state. Statistically, doctors tend to remain in the area where they do their training; therefore, increasing the number of physicians-in-training in a state is essential to increasing the physician workforce. To help meet the nations demand for doctors, the federal government traditionally has helped pay for physicians residencies, the final step in a doctors training. But in 1997, the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) capped the number of Medicare-supported medical residents for hospitals. A decade later, the number and geographical distribution of federally-supported medical residents do not reflect recent population growth or shifts. There are no exceptions that allow hospitals to permanently adjust their caps. For example, the cap on physician training positions does not adjust for population growth. A summary of the bills provisions is available at http://www.fha.org/S588ResdPhyRedSum.doc.
