Doctors from abroad: a cure for the physician shortage in America.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates there were 5,848 “primary medical health professional shortage areas” in the country in 2012 and that “it would take an additional 15,928 physicians to adequately meet the primary care medical needs of people in those areas,” according to cardiologist David J. Skorton, MD, president of Cornell University, in a Feb. 20, 2013 blog entry for the Huffington Post. The changing work habits of younger physicians are another factor. On average, new physicians want to work five fewer hours per week — equivalent to losing about 40,000 more doctors. Also, as the number of physicians continues to decrease, the number of patients will continue to increase, with millions of previously uninsured individuals seeking care under the Affordable Care Act and with Baby Boomers retiring in large numbers. “Currently there are just over 800,000 physicians in the U.S.,” said Jim Stone, president of Medicus Firm, a physician recruiting company based in Dallas. “Of these, about 30 percent are foreign-born or foreign-trained. We simply don’t have enough physicians — foreign doctors are absolutely essential for delivering care in this country.” Because of this shortage, health care systems across the country rely on foreign medical graduates, commonly called FMGs, to help meet physician hiring needs. The top three areas of practice for FMGs are all in primary care — internal medicine, family medicine and pediatrics — three practice specialties that are in high demand. “Moreover,” said Francine Kyaw, division director for physician recruitment for Catholic Health Initiatives’ (CHI) Fargo, N.D. operating division in the upper Midwest, “their immigration status and work visas often require them to fill much-needed physician positions in health professional shortage areas or medically underDoctors from Abroad A Cure for the Physician Shortage in America