Opinion

Opinion

Physician Labor Markets Remain Tight

By LEIF BRIERLEY
The Mass. Medical Society’s 12th annual Physician Workforce Study found that physician labor markets continued to be tight, with four physician specialties — family medicine, internal medicine, gastroenterology, and neurology — experiencing significant shortages.
The study, released last month, showed, as in previous years, that physician shortages continue to influence labor-market conditions statewide. Several regions of the state, including the Springfield and Pittsfield areas, had a majority of respondents reporting inadequate pools of physicians were available to fill needed positions.
The percent of physicians reporting that “the current pool of applicants is inadequate” and the percent of respondents “having difficulty filling vacancies” both increased several percentage points from 2012 to 2013. While the adequacy of the physician labor pool and the ease of physician recruitment have shown a dramatic improvement over the past five years, this year’s data broke from the previous five-year trend of improving conditions in terms of filling vacancies and adequacy of the applicant pool.
Other findings indicate some dissatisfaction with physician practice issues, but also indicate familiarity with several key healthcare reform initiatives.
Among practicing physicians, dissatisfaction with the time spent on administrative tasks versus time spent on patient care increased, with more than half of physicians in 2013 either “very dissatisfied” or “dissatisfied” with the tradeoff between patient-care hours versus administrative tasks.
Massachusetts physicians also remained concerned about professional liability and liability costs, which continue to cause physicians to alter or limit the scope of their practice, impacting patient access to care.
However, physicians are becoming more familiar with the healthcare reform initiatives occurring both nationwide and locally. Overall, almost half of respondents were familiar with Chapter 224, the state’s cost-containment law passed in August 2012.
More physicians indicated in 2013 that they would be likely to participate in a voluntary global payment system than did in 2012, and 32.4% of physicians indicated that their medical practice is currently reimbursed through global payments.
Finally, nearly three-quarters of physicians were “very familiar” or “somewhat familiar” with accountable-care organizations, with 42% of respondents indicating their practice participated in this type of care-delivery model.
The Mass. Medical Society (MMS), with the assistance of prominent labor economists, completed this year’s study, which builds upon the results of the previous 11 years of physician-workforce studies. The most recent survey was mailed to 7,212 practicing Massachusetts physicians in January 2013. The recipients included both MMS members and non-members who were randomly selected from 18 specialties. A total of 748 physicians responded to the survey. The full report can be downloaded at Physician Labor Markets Remain Tight.

Leif Brierley is a health-policy analyst for the Mass. Medical Society.