Income dropped 10.2 percent for primary care physicians between 1995 and 2003, compared with a 7.1 percent decrease for all patient care physicians during that period, said the Center for Studying Health System Change in a June 22 report. The Academy worked with media outlets such as National Public Radio and The New York Times to publicize the impact the inflation-adjusted primary care pay slump might have on the nation's patients.
Media Sound Alarm on Low Pay for Primary Care
NPR, NYT Report New Data
By News Staff
6/27/2006
"We have been inadvertently sending out signals to family physicians and general internists, 'We don't value what you do. We don't want you,'" said Paul Ginsburg, Ph.D., report co-author and president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, June 23 on NPR's Morning Edition. Primary care physicians had an average net income of $135,036 in 1995 and of $121,262 (adjusted to 1995 dollars) in 2003, according to the report.
An audiocast of the NPR program, available June 26 and expected to be accessible later through NPR's archive, includes interviews with two FPs. The program featured a visit to the practice of Darlene Lawrence, M.D., in Washington, D.C., and an interview with James Dykes, M.D., of Durham, N.C.
NPR reporter Joanne Silberner introduced the segment on the drop in physicians' pay by saying that one group -- family physicians -- has been hit especially hard, "and they're already in short supply and at the low end of the physician pay scale." In the segment, Lawrence reports she used to make $150,000 a year from her practice, is now making $50,000, is taking an academic appointment to be able to repay her educational loans and hopes her current patients will come to her for care at the university's clinic.
The New York Times quoted AAFP President-Elect Rick Kellerman, M.D., of Wichita, Kan., in its June 22 story about the study, "Doctors' Average Pay Fell 7% in 8 Years, Report Says."
"What it is going to come down to is problems with access," in which patients wanting the services of a primary care physician will not be able to find a doctor able to see them, said Kellerman. He noted that the lower income of primary care physicians is causing fewer medical students to enter family medicine and is causing doctors going into internal medicine to subspecialize rather than become general internists. The result may be an eventual shortage of primary care physicians, he said.
An audiocast of the NPR program, available June 26 and expected to be accessible later through NPR's archive, includes interviews with two FPs. The program featured a visit to the practice of Darlene Lawrence, M.D., in Washington, D.C., and an interview with James Dykes, M.D., of Durham, N.C.
NPR reporter Joanne Silberner introduced the segment on the drop in physicians' pay by saying that one group -- family physicians -- has been hit especially hard, "and they're already in short supply and at the low end of the physician pay scale." In the segment, Lawrence reports she used to make $150,000 a year from her practice, is now making $50,000, is taking an academic appointment to be able to repay her educational loans and hopes her current patients will come to her for care at the university's clinic.
The New York Times quoted AAFP President-Elect Rick Kellerman, M.D., of Wichita, Kan., in its June 22 story about the study, "Doctors' Average Pay Fell 7% in 8 Years, Report Says."
"What it is going to come down to is problems with access," in which patients wanting the services of a primary care physician will not be able to find a doctor able to see them, said Kellerman. He noted that the lower income of primary care physicians is causing fewer medical students to enter family medicine and is causing doctors going into internal medicine to subspecialize rather than become general internists. The result may be an eventual shortage of primary care physicians, he said.
