2011 Webinar: Primary Care Workforce

NCSL 2011 Webinars allow attendees to participate in meetings taking place around the world from the comfort of their desk. They are collaborative, interactive and easy to use. Most webinars will be recorded for those who are unable to attend the live meeting.

This is the sixth in a six-part series “States Implementing Health Reform” co-hosted by the Forum for State Health Policy Leadership and the NCSL Health Program. 

States Implementing Health Reform: Primary Care Workforce Webinar
(Audio Archive Available!) 
PowerPoint Presentation - PDF File
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
2 p.m. ET/ 1 p.m. CT/ Noon MT/ 11 a.m. PT

The shortage of primary care providers has long been a state policy concern.  In the last decade fewer medical graduates are selecting primary care as a specialty, current primary care providers are retiring or leaving for opportunities in other fields.  With the Affordable Care Act adding an estimated 32 million Americans to the insured rolls there will be even greater strain on the primary care workforce.    

For example, in 2006, Massachusetts enacted health reform legislation that included coverage expansions.  Despite being among the states with very high ratios of total physicians to residents, the number of primary care doctors was inadequate to meet the demand.  A 2009 workforce survey from the Massachusetts Medical Society revealed that 40 percent of family physicians are no longer accepting new patients, up from 30 percent before reform and when patients find an open primary care practice, the average wait time for an appointment is more than 44 days, up from 17 days in 2005.

This webinar will explore how states can begin to address the primary care workforce shortages through innovative policies such as payment reforms and scope of practice changes as well as how states can improve their primary care workforce pipeline.

Archive:

• November 10, 2010 - States Implementing Health Reform:  2011 Timeline (Audio Archive Available!)
• November 17, 2010 - States Implementing Health Reform: Advancing Health through Nursing (Audio Archive Available!)
• December 1, 2010 - States Implementing Health Reform: Consumer Assistance and Insurance Oversight (Audio Archive Available!)
• December 15, 2010 - States Implementing Health Reform: Exchanges Part II (Audio Archive Available!) 
• January 19. 2011 - States Implementing Health Reform: Primary Care Workforce  (Audio Archive Available!) 
• February 2, 2011 - States Implementing Health Reform: Medicaid (Audio Archive Available!)