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The Business of
Health Care Report
Twenty percent of the U.S. population resides in rural areas,
but only 9 percent of physicians practice there. People in rural areas constitute one of the largest underserved
U.S. populations, and the task for recruiting doctors to practice there is getting harder. Most of the federally designated physician shortages are in
rural areas. Despite an increase in the overall national supply of physicians during the past few decades, rural
areas continue to be underserved, and rural residents are forced to wait longer and travel farther to get the care
they need. Rural residents are older, sicker, poorer and are more likely
to be uninsured than urban residents, according to a study by The Associated Press. Thus physicians in rural areas
are paid less by Medicare than physicians in other parts of the country. The disparity in payment is a major reason
why fewer doctors are willing to work in rural areas. Rural areas also are at a disadvantage due to the lack of
high-tech equipment, facilities and physician specialists for diagnosis and treatment, which increase and disadvantage
the workload of the rural primary care physicians. A recent change by the United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) poses yet another obstacle for rural hospitals: recruiting physicians. The USDA no longer seeks waivers to
allow foreign physicians to stay in the country upon completing medical training. Previously, foreign physicians
who came to the U.S for graduate medical study had to return home for two years once they completed training, but
the government often waived the requirement if the physician agreed to work in rural areas. Continuous efforts are being made by policymakers and medical
educators to find the most effective and least costly ways to increase the supply and retention of rural
physicians. For Texas Health Resources
and its family of hospitals - Harris Methodist Hospitals, Presbyterian
Healthcare System and Arlington Memorial Hospital - I'm CEO Doug
Hawthorne with "The Business of Health Care Report" on NewsRadio
1080 KRLD.
Sources: THR Managed Care Department, Medical Data International, Arthur Andersen, Interstudy Competitive Edge ©
2002 Texas Health Resources |
I'm Doug Hawthorne, President and CEO of Texas Health Resources, with
"The Business of Health Care Report" on 