Report: Primary care physicians decreasing, giving way to retail clinic use

NEW YORK The shortage of primary care physicians is bound to escalate as long hours, lower pay, less prestige and more administrative headaches are turning doctors instead toward more lucrative subspecialties, according to a recent USA Today report.

With primary care losing its pull, retail-based health clinics will play an increasingly important role in the frontline for wellness and preventative-care programs.

The number of U.S. medical school students going into primary care has plummeted 51.8% since 1997, USA Today reported, citing data from the American Academy of Family Physicians. The AAFP, which represents more than 93,000 physicians, predicts a shortage of 40,000 family physicians in 2020, when demand is expected to spike.

The report also states that the U.S. healthcare system has roughly 100,000 family physicians and will need nearly 140,000 in 10 years. At the core of the demand: The 78 million Baby Boomers who begin to turn 65 in 2011 and will require increasing medical care.

Furthermore, the need for more doctors will rise if Congress passes healthcare legislation that extends insurance coverage to a significant portion of the 47 million Americans who lack insurance, USA Today reported.

Finding a physician will become more difficult, waits for appointments will grow longer and more people will turn to emergency rooms, which are already overflowing, Ted Epperly, president of the AAFP, told USA Today.