Imagine being rushed to the nearest rural hospital with a serious injury only to find out there is no general surgeon to save your life. Imagine you have a serious medical condition and there is no specialist or primary care physician in your community to treat you.
As a general and trauma surgeon in rural Northern California for more than 16 years, I’ve seen my share of life-threatening conditions that required on-the-spot intervention. Without immediate care many of these patients would have died in the 90 minutes it takes to request a helicopter and complete the round-trip flight to the closest trauma center.
There is a shortage of physicians in California’s rural communities and it has the potential to put patients’ health at risk. While the ratio of physicians to population tends to be higher in urban areas, the severe shortage of physicians in the state’s rural areas compromises access to care for local residents and visitors alike. Because of the shortage of physicians, residents of rural communities often have to travel long distances for medical care that should be provided closer to home.
The physician shortage is growing acute because rural communities face significant obstacles attracting and retaining doctors. In our communities the loss of any single specialist or primary care physician presents a potential recruiting problem that is linked directly with the difficulty of generating sufficient income to sustain a medical practice in our smaller, low-wage communities.
The reasons for this are varied, but often include the higher number of Medicare and Medi-Cal patients in rural communities, the lower reimbursements rates for those patients and the tendency of rural areas to have higher proportions of low-income, uninsured and older patients.
If rural hospitals had the ability to directly hire physicians, they could provide the economic incentive to attract and retain these physicians, resulting in increased access to quality health care services for millions of rural residents.
Assembly Bill 648 has been heard in three committees, was voted out of each committee without a single “no” vote, and was heard on the Assembly floor. It is anticipated that AB648 will be heard on June 29 in the Senate Business and Professions Committee.
AB 648 would help alleviate the shortage of rural physicians by allowing rural hospitals to directly employ physicians, thereby ensuring timely and convenient access to care for millions of Californians. With the economic security that comes from steady employment, physicians who are committed to serving rural communities will be able to focus on caring for patients without the burden of administrative, financial and operational concerns associated with maintaining a medical practice.
California is currently one of only five states in the nation that prohibit hospitals from directly employing physicians. The other states are Colorado, Iowa, Ohio and Texas.
California’s rural hospitals play an important role in the delivery of health care to California residents. They provide primary and acute care services to the state’s 2.6 million rural residents and cover a geographic territory that includes approximately 75 percent of the state.
This bill would further the goal of improving access to health care for residents in California’s rural communities. I urge the Legislature to pass, and the Governor to sign, this important piece of legislation.
• Dr. John Harch is a general surgeon and trauma surgeon at Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta.
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Imagine being rushed to the nearest rural hospital with a serious injury only to find out there is no general surgeon to save your life. Imagine you have a serious medical condition and there is no specialist or primary care physician in your community to treat you.
As a general and trauma surgeon in rural Northern California for more than 16 years, I’ve seen my share of life-threatening conditions that required on-the-spot intervention. Without immediate care many of these patients would have died in the 90 minutes it takes to request a helicopter and complete the round-trip flight to the closest trauma center.
There is a shortage of physicians in California’s rural communities and it has the potential to put patients’ health at risk. While the ratio of physicians to population tends to be higher in urban areas, the severe shortage of physicians in the state’s rural areas compromises access to care for local residents and visitors alike. Because of the shortage of physicians, residents of rural communities often have to travel long distances for medical care that should be provided closer to home.
The physician shortage is growing acute because rural communities face significant obstacles attracting and retaining doctors. In our communities the loss of any single specialist or primary care physician presents a potential recruiting problem that is linked directly with the difficulty of generating sufficient income to sustain a medical practice in our smaller, low-wage communities.
The reasons for this are varied, but often include the higher number of Medicare and Medi-Cal patients in rural communities, the lower reimbursements rates for those patients and the tendency of rural areas to have higher proportions of low-income, uninsured and older patients.
If rural hospitals had the ability to directly hire physicians, they could provide the economic incentive to attract and retain these physicians, resulting in increased access to quality health care services for millions of rural residents.
Assembly Bill 648 has been heard in three committees, was voted out of each committee without a single “no” vote, and was heard on the Assembly floor. It is anticipated that AB648 will be heard on June 29 in the Senate Business and Professions Committee.
AB 648 would help alleviate the shortage of rural physicians by allowing rural hospitals to directly employ physicians, thereby ensuring timely and convenient access to care for millions of Californians. With the economic security that comes from steady employment, physicians who are committed to serving rural communities will be able to focus on caring for patients without the burden of administrative, financial and operational concerns associated with maintaining a medical practice.
California is currently one of only five states in the nation that prohibit hospitals from directly employing physicians. The other states are Colorado, Iowa, Ohio and Texas.
California’s rural hospitals play an important role in the delivery of health care to California residents. They provide primary and acute care services to the state’s 2.6 million rural residents and cover a geographic territory that includes approximately 75 percent of the state.
This bill would further the goal of improving access to health care for residents in California’s rural communities. I urge the Legislature to pass, and the Governor to sign, this important piece of legislation.
• Dr. John Harch is a general surgeon and trauma surgeon at Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta.
