Med school enrollment and NP's/PA's

Specialties NP

Published

Numerous articles make mention that Medical School enrollment is down, and that there are a declining number of Physicians.

Can anyone shed some light on this? If it is really true, then why? And, has anyone forecasted how this will affect issues pertaining to midlevel practitioners in the next 5 years? For example, Medicare reimbursement at 100% instead of 85%, prescription rights for all midlevels, in all states, etc.

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I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding in this thread about how new doctors are produced in the United States. It's not a matter of supply and demand. In other words, it's not a matter of schools opening up more seats so that more applicants will be accepted.

Rather, Congress controls how many medical residencies will be funded each year, and this controls the supply of new doctors.

Here's a link to an article from March, 2005, in USAToday that explains the issue pretty well:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-03-02-doctor-shortage_x.htm

And here's a small excerpt from that article that addresses the issue of how the U.S. government (along with various medical groups, including the AMA) controls our country's supply of new doctors:

The marketplace doesn't determine how many doctors the nation has, as it does for engineers, pilots and other professions. The number of doctors is a political decision, heavily influenced by doctors themselves.

Congress controls the supply of physicians by how much federal funding it provides for medical residencies-the graduate training required of all doctors.

The United States stopped opening medical schools in the 1980s because of the predicted surplus of doctors. The Association of American Medical Colleges dropped this long-standing view in 2002 with the statement: "It now appears that those predictions may be in error." Last month, it recommended increasing the number of U.S. medical students by 15%.

I just wanted to bring this up in order to clarify how new doctors are produced in the U.S. If med school enrollments truly are down, it may not be because demand for the seats has lessened or that the supply of seats has "naturally" shrunken. Rather, it could be (likely is) that the supply of seats has been mandated downwards. According to the USAToday article, this is about to change.

I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding in this thread about how new doctors are produced in the United States. It's not a matter of supply and demand. In other words, it's not a matter of schools opening up more seats so that more applicants will be accepted.

Rather, Congress controls how many medical residencies will be funded each year, and this controls the supply of new doctors.

Here's a link to an article from March, 2005, in USAToday that explains the issue pretty well:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-03-02-doctor-shortage_x.htm

And here's a small excerpt from that article that addresses the issue of how the U.S. government (along with various medical groups, including the AMA) controls our country's supply of new doctors:

I just wanted to bring this up in order to clarify how new doctors are produced in the U.S. If med school enrollments truly are down, it may not be because demand for the seats has lessened or that the supply of seats has "naturally" shrunken. Rather, it could be (likely is) that the supply of seats has been mandated downwards. According to the USAToday article, this is about to change.

Well, I may have to disagree with you on it. Each year tere are many, many residency positions wich go unfilled from the national match, or even a "sramble". This is especially true for the residences which deal with general practice (FP/IM),non-university based program i.e community hospitals, which will still get you the license to practice medicine, but will seriously limit your chances of getting into competitive subspecialties via fellowships.About 2/3 of all residencies in US are filled by non-U.S med graduates, mainly:

IMG :mostly U.S and Canada citizens who received an international medical degree (most likely by not getting in MD/DO back home), and FMG (true foreign medical graduates), who are graduates of their domiciled programs.

There are plenty of info re:same on http://www.studentdoctor.net

and http://www.valuemd.com. Just scroll down to BB dealing with residencies issues and the national match.While U.S congress may somehow influence U.S medical schools, they cannot affect licensing process of the individual States.

As long as foreign med school is listed on WHO list, and is recognized by ECFMG most likely you can enter the game.

Best of Luck to all

I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding in this thread about how new doctors are produced in the United States. It's not a matter of supply and demand. In other words, it's not a matter of schools opening up more seats so that more applicants will be accepted.

Rather, Congress controls how many medical residencies will be funded each year, and this controls the supply of new doctors.

Here's a link to an article from March, 2005, in USAToday that explains the issue pretty well:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-03-02-doctor-shortage_x.htm

And here's a small excerpt from that article that addresses the issue of how the U.S. government (along with various medical groups, including the AMA) controls our country's supply of new doctors:

I just wanted to bring this up in order to clarify how new doctors are produced in the U.S. If med school enrollments truly are down, it may not be because demand for the seats has lessened or that the supply of seats has "naturally" shrunken. Rather, it could be (likely is) that the supply of seats has been mandated downwards. According to the USAToday article, this is about to change.

Well, I may have to disagree with you on it. Each year tere are many, many residency positions wich go unfilled from the national match, or even a "sramble". This is especially true for the residences which deal with general practice (FP/IM),non-university based program i.e community hospitals, which will still get you the license to practice medicine, but will seriously limit your chances of getting into competitive subspecialties via fellowships.About 2/3 of all residencies in US are filled by non-U.S med graduates, mainly:

IMG :mostly U.S and Canada citizens who received an international medical degree (most likely by not getting in MD/DO back home), and FMG (true foreign medical graduates), who are graduates of their domiciled programs.

There are plenty of info re:same on http://www.studentdoctor.net

and http://www.valuemd.com. Just scroll down to BB dealing with residencies issues and the national match.While U.S congress may somehow influence U.S medical schools, they cannot affect licensing process of the individual States.

As long as foreign med school is listed on WHO list, and is recognized by ECFMG most likely you can enter the game.

Best of Luck to all

That USA today article is mostly wrong. The only thing that was correct was that US Congress controls Medicare funding for residencies.

What it got wrong was:

1) the number of US residencies has DRASTICALLY INCREASED since the early 1980s. Currently there are more residency positions than there are graduating US medical doctors every year

2) Doctors have no control over residency slots. Congress, populated by lawyers, not doctors, has total control over it

3) Doctors have no control over opening new medical schools. The LCME is the sole authority for accreditation. If you meet the requirements, then you are in. You could open up 500 new medical schools tomorrow if you could get them to meet het LCME requirements. the AMA has NO SAY over whether we build new medical schools

4) The number of osteopathic medical schools has skyrocketed in the last 25 years. DOs are equivalent to MDs. Tons of new DO schools are opening.

5) Several new MD schools have opened. FSU, UMiami-FAU, UCF, FIU. New MD programs in the works include UCal Riverside, UC Merced, UTexas El Paso, UTexas Austin

6) The number of foreign doctors that hte US takes every year has skyrocketed since the 1980s. We now take more foreign doctors than all other nations COMBINED.

7) State legislatures, not the AMA, determine whether or not new medical schools are built. Florida just approved 2 new medical schools with zero consultation from the AMA. If the state legislature wants to build a new med school, then there's nothing that doctors can do about it. As long as the new school meets the LCME requirements, then its a given

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