subject: Damaged National Economy consequentially results in Crowded Emergency Room Clinics In Texas [print this page] Damaged National Economy consequentially results in Crowded Emergency Room Clinics In Texas
As the country ages, the rising need for Emergency and Urgent Care is also increasing. The physician shortage in the nation that we are at this time experiencing is predicted to get worse. Other issues are affecting this scarcity as well, as well as the shrinking economy and the just passed health care reform. In Texas there are a total of 63510 physicians, as of March 2010. This includes both DOs and MDs. Of those 63510 physicians, 2702 are Emergency Medicine physicians, 2360 being MD trained and 342 being DO trained.
Urgent Care doctors will have lots of work presented from Medicare, but they may not need it, According to a press release by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commision / MPAC. Medicare lower reimbursement rates than privately held insurance policies, Medicare patients are much less likely to be accepted by Primary Care physicians. Up to a third of all Medicare patients may not be able to find a Primary Care doctor of medicine at all as a result.
These statistics show that other areas are hit much more robustly than the average, take Arizona for example. According to a study by St. Lukes The desert state has some areas where the Primary Care physician-to-patient ratio is less than 6 doctors per 10,000 residents. More citizens not having access to primary care will result in augmented use of Emergency Room and Urgent Care institutions. Naturally, Emergency and Urgent Care doctors of medicine are going to have their hands full if this trend goes unchanged.
Destabilized Economy results in Crowded Texas Service Centers
Many people are losing availability to inexpensive health benefits as the undermining economy is running rampant. Citizens receiving COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) coverage are also running out of options at the same time as insurance policies are lapsing at an exceptional rate. Many people have chosen they must do without proper defensive doctor visits with the walls closing in on affordable healthcare. As you might expect, when the severity of the condition can no longer be quelled with rest and over the counter remedies, and starts to dramatically interfere with daily life, the emergency room may be the last place to turn. Consequently the housing bust, the stock market crash and speedily rising unemployment rates, emergency rooms and Urgent Care clinics are filling up faster than ever.
Texas Baby Boomer Generation in the Emergency Room
In the United States another socioeconomic group attributing to this cannot be ignored, and is another factor in the insurgence of Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care cases in this country. This group, also known as the Baby Boomers, statistically requires considerably more assets, personnel, specialists, and physician care. They need inpatient / outpatient and Emergency room services more and more regularly than any other demographic. The baby boomers will result in an exponential increase of the 65 and older demographic.
Can Health Care Reform Solve ER tribulations in Texas?
It is neither here nor there if the health reform will crush us or not. Given the rising number of geriatric patients, uninsured patients, and underinsured patients, Emergency room overcrowding is a serious and budding problem. If the health care reform doesn't fix the problems it promises, the problems cannot be expected to get better. Health care reform should deal with is the loss of emergency room facilities. The United States lost over 400 Emergency Room clinics between 1993 and 2003. What can underinsured/uninsured patients do? Besides hoping that an ambulance can get them or their loved ones to an Emergency room in time, they can do very little. In that same time frame, 1993-2003, Emergency room visits dramatically grew by over twenty five %. In these scenarios, doctors will undeniably have their work cut out for them.
