Reducing Supply: New Jersey Scans Growing Physician Crowd
Commission on physician workforce issues in New Jersey
The Medical Society of New Jersey created the New Jersey Commission on the Physician Workforce to study physician supply in the state.
The commission had 28 members, including practicing physicians, academic leaders, and representatives of health plans, state agencies, and other health professionals (see Appendix 1 for a roster of members).
Key Results
The commission met 14 times and issued a final report in March 1999, A New Framework for Physician Workforce Policy in New Jersey, which included the following recommendations:
- Every New Jersey facility with a residency training program should submit a plan for reducing the number of residency positions offered, or a justification for not reducing the number of residency slots.
- To promote innovative medical education programs, the state should establish a Medical Education Improvement Fund (financed by a small levy on health insurance premium revenues) that would provide grants for demonstration programs.
- The commission called on the New Jersey governor and state legislature to establish a stable formula for funding graduate medical education and charity care.
- The commission urged federal and state authorities to exercise caution in trying to mandate changes in the specialty mix of New Jersey physicians.
Funding
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) provided $38,155 in grant funding from to December 1997 to June 1999 to support the project.
Recommended Reading
- Growth in Physicians and Advanced-Practice Nurses in Counties Targeted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Southern Rural Access Program: 2002 and 2003
- Recruiting and Retaining Primary Care Physicians in Urban Underserved Communities
- Geographic Maldistribution of Primary Care for Children
- Primary Care Physicians' Links to Other Physicians Through Medicare Patients
- Increasing the Number of Generalist Physicians Practicing in Underserved Communities in Texas - the Generalist Physician Initiative