Aligning Resources, Increasing Accountability, and Delivering a Primary Care Physician Workforce For America

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Lundi sep 15, 2014 10:30 am - 11:30 am EDT

Capitol Visitor's Center

United States Congress

First St SE

Room SVC 201

Washington, DC 20515

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Our country currently faces a physician workforce shortage. Factors that contribute to our current challenge are numerous, and are only compounded by decades of neglect, misalignment of priorities and resources in medical education, and the inherent financial interest and competition between parties in the health care industry.

In our history, we have yet to make an effort to establish a workforce policy that aligns human and financial resources with desired goals. Instead, we have relied on local and community economic forces to make these decisions on our behalf.

While our current system excels at educating highly trained specialists and physician researchers, it fails to produce the number of primary care physicians Americans need and respect.

Our nation’s graduate medical education (GME) system was established as part of Medicare in 1965. In the past 50 years, there have been very few changes to the core functions and finances of the GME system. As a result, despite spending approximately $15 billion annually on graduate medical education, the United States will require almost 52,000 additional primary care physicians by 2025.

The nation’s current shortage is driven by several factors, but there are three major reasons we need more primary care physicians:

An increase in the number of people who have health insurance
An increase in our population
The aging of our population

The Institute of Medicine released the report, Graduate Medical Education that Meets the Nation’s Health Needs, on July 29. This long-anticipated report made several recommendations on how we, as a nation, can better leverage our investment in GME to produce a physician workforce that is more closely aligned with our population’s needs. The AAFP aims to build on the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations, and offer a set of policy recommendations to implement immediately to transition our GME system away from the legacy hospital-based system, and toward a robust community-based system that trains physicians to be well positioned to provide care to our growing and aging population.

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Speakers

Douglas Henley, MD, FAAFP

Executive Vice President & Chief Executive Officer, American Academy of Family Physicians

Douglas Henley, MD, FAAFP is Chair of PCPCC's Board and Executive Vice President and CEO of the American Academy of Family Physicians, which represents more than 120,000 physicians and medical students nationwide. Prior to AAFP, Dr. Henley was in private practice for 20 years in his hometown of Hope Mills, NC. He is a founding member of the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance Steering Committee and serves on the steering committee of the Center for Payment Reform. Henley served as a commissioner on the American Health Information Community. In this capacity he served as co-chair of the Personalized Healthcare Workgroup. Dr. Henley also was an inaugural commissioner of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology. An AAFP physician member since 1973, Dr. read more

Jeff Cain, MD, MD

AAFP Board Chair, American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)

Jeffrey J. Cain, MD, FAAFP, a family physician in Denver, Colo., is board chair of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Previously, he served one-year terms as president and president-elect, and three years as a member of the AAFP Board of Directors. Cain was elected to these positions by the Congress of Delegates, the AAFP’s governing body. The AAFP represents 115,900 physicians and medical students nationwide. As board chair of the AAFP, Cain advocates on behalf of family physicians and patients nationwide to inspire positive change in the U.S. health care system. read more

Kisha Davis, MD, MD

AAFP Board Member, Board of Directors, American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)

Kisha N. Davis, MD, MPH, FAAFP, a family physician in Gaithersburg, Md., serves as the new physician member of the American Academy of Family Physicians Board of Directors. The AAFP represents 115,900 physicians and medical students nationwide. Davis was elected to a one-year term by the new physician constituency during the AAFP National Conference of Special Constituencies and was confirmed by the AAFP’s governing body, the Congress of Delegates. read more

Reid Blackwelder, MD, MD

AAFP President, American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)

Reid B. Blackwelder, MD, FAAFP, a family physician in Kingsport, Tenn., is president of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Previously, he served three years as a director on the AAFP Board and one year as president-elect. Blackwelder was elected president-elect in October 2012 by the Congress of Delegates, the AAFP’s governing body. The AAFP represents 115,900 physicians and medical students nationwide. As president of the AAFP, Blackwelder advocates on behalf of family physicians and patients nationwide to inspire positive change in the U.S. health care system. read more

Fitzhugh Mullan, MD, MD

Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy, George Washington University

Fitzhugh S. M. Mullan is Murdock Head Professor of Medicine and Health Policy, a joint position in SPHHS and the SMHS. His primary appointment is in the Department of Health Policy. From the challenges of meeting the needs of the uninsured in the District of Columbia's inner city, to the titanic struggle against HIV/AIDS in Africa, Professor Mullan's career has focused on community health, workforce issues, including the medical brain drain in Africa, and many other challenges in medical and public health policy. "Health equity at home and abroad is the principle that unifies my work," he says. read more

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Aligning Resources, Increasing Accountability, and Delivering a Primary Care Physician Workforce For America

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