Ten healthcare leaders joined Becker's to discuss what the physician workforce might look like in five years.
Question: How do you anticipate the physician workforce changing over the next five years?
Eric Tower. Healthcare Advisor at Blank Rome (Chicago): There is a bulge of experienced doctors that is on the cusp of retirement, increasing burnout, growing demand for care with an aging population and an identified shortage of physicians entering the workforce. There is also a continued focus on value-based care, but many elements of that care are not directly reimbursable under the predominant RVU model. The net result: the workforce will increasingly transition to allow doctors to practice at the top of their licenses (e.g., the most complicated matters), while increasingly relying on AI and using ancillary providers to handle routine communications, "wellness," some chronic care management and simpler procedures, which will hopefully help with burnout. Expect continued growth in alternative sites of practice (telehealth, workforce clinics, etc.) and a continued movement of services to environments that are less intensive than hospitals (ASCs, physician offices, etc.).
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"The Physician Workforce Crisis: What’s Coming in the Next 5 Years," by Patsy Newitt was published in Becker's ASC Review.
