The American College of Radiology and dozens of other medical groups are voicing their support for bipartisan legislation to address resident physician shortages that have only worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Representatives recently introduced the Resident Physician Shortage Act of 2021 in the House, with a similar bill also floated in the Senate. Its aim is to address nationwide doc shortfalls by bolstering the number of Medicare-supported residency positions.
In letters sent to both chambers of Congress last month, ACR and others voiced “enthusiastic support” for the bills. They highlighted “alarming” trends among the physician workforce, including an aging population requiring greater levels of care, coupled with 2 in 5 docs reaching retirement age over the next decade.
“This bipartisan legislation is crucial to expanding the physician workforce to ensure that patients across the country are able to access quality care from providers,” ACR, the American Medical Association and numerous others wrote March 24. “The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the significant barriers to care that patients face, and has also highlighted rising concerns of clinician burnout,” they added later.
Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Ala., introduced the House bill last month alongside Reps. John Katko, R-N.Y., Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Rodney Davis, R-Ill. Sewell noted that the proposal would support an additional 2,000 positions each year from 2023-2029 for a total of 14,000 positions. Absent any legislation action, the U.S. could face a doc shortage of upward of 121,300 by 2030, experts noted.
“If COVID has shown us anything, it's that we need more highly trained doctors," Suozzi said in a March 29 statement. "Ensuring there are more opportunities for aspiring doctors to go through residency programs will help our nation provide better care, lower wait times, and increase access to healthcare.”
Lawmakers previously introduced the bill back in 2019, but it was never passed. The ACR alerted radiologists about its support for the legislation in an update posted March 31.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.