Report: Number of Primary Care Doctors in the United States Down

Fewer American doctors are focusing on primary care, but the decline is being covered by physicians from other countries. The General Accountability Office said that as of 2006 there were 22,146 American doctors in residency programs in the United States specializing in primary care. That was down from 23,801 in 1995, the research arm of Congress told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “It is troubling to me that the number of Americans pursuing a career in primary care has declined,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. Overall growth in the number of primary-care physicians “has been totally due to the number of international medical students training in America,” Sanders said. “We are increasingly dependent on international medical school graduates to meet our needs. Currently, one in four new physicians in the U.S. is an international medical graduate.” In its report on primary-care providers, GAO said the number of international medical graduates training in primary care had grown from 13,025 in 1995 to 15,565 in 2006. For specialists, the number of Americans in training went from 45,300 in 1995 to 47,575 in 2006 and over the same period international specialists grew from 11,957 to 12,611, GAO said.

To read the Associated Press article, please click on the link below:

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gPkJfzXhY8PFRbJbKPY4AS8rMOFwD8UP1C900

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.

Physician Advisors: Dedicated to Helping a Hospital’s Medical Staff Improve Documentation and Compliance

Few would doubt that a physician dedicated to helping a hospital’s medical staff improve documentation and compliance can help improve the facility’s billing efficiency and its resulting bottom line. This recognition, in addition to the need for hospitals to be compliant with Medicare’s and Medicaid’s Conditions of Participation has resulted in the growth of the role of physician adviser from a position that could once be filled by a semi-retired physician for a few hours a week to a necessary important operational medical necessity compliance and revenue integrity overseer available 7 days a week, according to Joseph Zebrowitz, MD, executive vice president at Executive Health Resources (EHR) in Newtown Square, PA. Zebrowitz said that the physician adviser is “an incredibly difficult role to develop internally. The physician adviser role has evolved to encompass many different skill sets.” Today, a physician adviser must be an expert in medicine as well as Medicare regulations. EHR provides outsourced physician adviser services to more than 300 hospitals and health care systems in the United States, ranging from 50 beds to more than 1,200 beds. Zebrowitz says that the company has seen significant national growth over the past 18 to 24 months and doesn’t expect that to slow down any time soon. All hospitals can benefit from physician adviser services, he said. Smaller hospitals have the challenge of finding and training the right personnel, while larger hospitals, especially academic medical centers, are often so layered and complex that it’s difficult for them to coordinate a legally compliant and accountable internal physician adviser program. A physician adviser process offers “the opportunity to unify departments that haven’t always worked together,” Zebrowitz noted. Those departments include finance, nursing, medical staff, case management, compliance and more. Oftentimes, when he runs an initial meeting at a client facility, the attendees realize they’ve never all met together before. “It’s time for these silos to get together because they each have a stake in regulatory compliance.”

Please click the link below to read the Advance Web article:

http://health-information.advanceweb.com/editorial/content/editorial.aspx?cc=107553

For more information on defending medical malpractice, nursing home and general liability matters in Florida contact Howard Citron at Citron & Associates, P.A. – www.citronlegal.com.