There is a huge shortage of primary care providers in the country, and it's getting worse every single year.
If you want healthcare reform to address the critical shortage of primary care providers, please go to this link and support this amendment to the healthcare reform bill...
http://capwiz.com/...
The above amendment already has about a dozen democratic co-sponsors, but it needs more.
We need more primary care providers if Healthcare reform is going to work as intended.
The wait times to see a doctor in IL are upwards of two months already. And I'm sure the problem is just as bad everywhere else
Without primary care providers, patients will not get needed preventative care.
And worse yet, once 47 million people are provided with insurance, wait times to see a doctor will go up, unless the above amendment is included to train more primary care providers.
I am writing to request your co-sponsorship of the "Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2009" (S. 973), which has been introduced by Sens. Bill Nelson (D-FL), Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).
Since enactment of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA), Medicare has severely restricted its level of support for physician training ("graduate medical education," or GME) and the unique clinical environment that teaching hospitals maintain in support of GME. While the BBA’s "cap" on Medicare support for GME may have seemed reasonable policy twelve years ago, today the GME cap clearly contributes to physician shortages across the nation, including an undersupply of primary care and other "generalist" physicians. Under S. 973, America’s health care infrastructure will be strengthened by expanding by 15% the number of Medicare-supported physician training positions. Preference will be given to expanding programs that train primary care physicians and general surgeons, as well as those that train residents in community-based settings. The bill also changes existing Medicare regulations that are troublesome barriers to training residents in non-hospital settings. Finally, this legislation assures that Medicare-supported training slots from closed teaching hospitals are redistributed among other nearby teaching hospitals.
The United States faces a serious shortage of physicians and other health professionals, and the impact of the shortage will be exacerbated by our growing (and aging) population. Health care reform efforts to expand health care coverage and access for more Americans will further increase the demand for physician services. By cosponsoring this bill, you will help increase the nation’s supply of physicians and help address the long-term needs of the communities you represent.
Continued here. Please go the below link to very quickly send your representative a note supporting this key bill.
http://capwiz.com/...
The primary care shortage needs to be addressed yesterday. Not only will the 47 million newly insured stress the system even harder, I have heard there will be some percentage of primary care physicians who will take early retirement if they don't like the form healthcare reform takes. That could be disastrous.
The current co-sponsors of the bill include...
Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Harry Reid (D-NV), and Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Reps. Joe Crowley (D-NY), Kendrick Meek (D-FL), Kathy Castor (D-FL) introduced S. 973/H.R. 2251 on May 5, 2009.
There isn't a bigger proponent of healthcare reform than Chuck Schumer. There is a very good reason why he so strongly wants this amendment.
This amendment is absolutely critical in ensuring that we have enough primary care physicians to actually reduce costs and provide care for everyone.
Unfortunately, the bill is stalling. And it needs grassroots support from you go if HCR is to suceed.
Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act of 2009 - Amends title XVIII (Medicare) of the Social Security Act to require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: (1) reduce a hospital's otherwise applicable resident limit by the number of positions unused for the five most recent cost reporting periods; and (2) require the distribution of additional resulting residency positions to certain other hospitals.
Requires that all the time spent by a resident in outpatient settings be counted towards the determination of full-time equivalency for the purposes of payments for direct graduate (GME) and indirect (IME) medical education costs, without regard to the setting in which the activities are performed, if the hospital continues to incur the costs of the resident's stipends and fringe benefits during the time the resident spends in that setting.
Sets forth rules for counting resident time for didactic and scholarly activities and other activities.
Directs the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish a process for the redistribution of residency slots after a hospital closes.