California physicians upset with work force study

A new study indicates no physician shortage in California, but physicians and recruiters beg to differ.

By Jay Greene, AMNews staff. May 7, 2001.

California physicians have a new target for their frustration: A study concluding that there is no physician shortage, that satisfaction is high and that compensation is comparable to national averages.

"Our report flies in the face of anecdotes that doctors are leaving the state in droves," said Edward O'Neil, PhD, director of the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University of California, San Francisco.

In the UCSF study released last month, researchers found that California had increased its physician-to-population ratio 7% to 190 patient care physicians per 100,000 population in 2000 from 177 per 100,000 in 1994, a ratio slightly lower than national averages of between 195 and 200. UCSF used AMA Masterfile data but didn't count resident physicians or part-time physicians who work less than 20 hours a week. Critics of the study contend that the data are outdated, incomplete and flawed.

UCSF researchers also used a 1998 survey of 2,000 California physicians to conclude that income is not declining drastically because of managed care. Median yearly incomes in 1998 ranged from $120,000 to $140,000 for generalists and $200,000 to $250,000 for specialists, the study found.

While the report noted shortages of physicians in 25 of the state's 58 counties, Dr. O'Neil said most of those counties are rural and contain only a small fraction of the state's 65,000 patient care physicians and, in turn, a small fraction of the state's overall population The ratio of physicians to population varies from a high of 238 per 100,000 in the San Francisco area to 120 in the Sacramento region, which includes several rural counties. The Council on Graduate Medical Education, a federal work force advisory panel, recommends 145 to 185 physicians per 100,000 population. [...]