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Actually, we do have a shortage of Doctors, especially Primary Care. Caps are set in place by Medicare to limit the number of residents in an academic program.
by akshatpradhan 12y ago
Actually, we do have a shortage of Doctors, especially Primary Care. Caps are set in place by Medicare to limit the number of residents in an academic program. Academic hospitals would love to increase their slots but Medicare won't allow that. I think last year something like 23k students applied to residency programs and only 6k got accepted. What happens to the rejected 17k students as they wander aimlessly to figure out what next? Re-apply next year?
I think the cap is set by Medicare because they pay the Residents salary across the nation.
6000 students * $60k resident salary = $360,000,000
- talmand 12y agoSo, am I to assume there are laws in place to prevent a residency program from paying the salary themselves to bypass Medicare restrictions?
- debacle 12y agoMedicare has nothing to do with it. The AMA doesn't want doctors flooding the market. They are a very powerful union.
- akshatpradhan 12y agoHere's an interesting piece of info from the AAMC: https://www.aamc.org/advocacy/gme/71178/gme_gme0012.html https://www.aamc.org/advocacy/gme/71178/gme_gme0012.html
- cmsmith 12y agoThese are the same hospitals which charge markups of tens of thousands of dollars per patient. If the Medicare number of residents was really suboptimal, then more residents should allow them to treat more patients and make more money.
- king_jester 12y agoThis is disingenuous. Medical schools would increase resident caps even without the bonus money from Medicare if there was a reason to do so. Reasons go beyond just the Medicare funds that go for those slots.
- akshatpradhan 12y agoCould you articulate more? Why aren't Academic Hospitals allowed to increase the cap limit on Residency programs?
- vonmoltke 12y agoThey are most certainly allowed to increase the cap. They don't have the money to. Texas is putting state money into state-run academic hospitals in order to increase the number of slots open, and at least one non-profit academic hospital here (Scott & White) is using their own money to increase the number of residency slots they have.
- akshatpradhan 12y agoI don't think its true that they're allowed to increase the cap. These quotes suggest otherwise. "Physicians and medical students from across the country are urging Congress...to lift the cap on the number of available residency slots." http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/2013-02-03-urge-congress-retain-funding-for-residency-programs.page http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/news/news/2013-02-03-urge-co... "The BBA resident limits have imposed significant limitations on the ability of teaching hospitals and medical schools that sponsor and conduct graduate medical education programs to respond to the needs of the communities they serve." https://www.aamc.org/advocacy/gme/71178/gme_gme0012.html https://www.aamc.org/advocacy/gme/71178/gme_gme0012.html
- king_jester 12y agoIts not a hard cap, its a cap of number of residencies that will be supported by federal funding through Medicare: http://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2012/08/30/why-residency-programs-cant-fill-the-physician-gap http://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2012/08/30/why-reside... A large majority of residencies are funded this way due to the very high cost of residency. As a result, many private institutions won't increase residency numbers on their own due to funding. The main issue is the cost of residency is massive and is prohibitive for private money to fund anyone's residency.