Healthcare experts are sounding the alarm on the primary-care physician shortage that they say has reached a crisis point in New Jersey. One factor is some physicians have been forced into early retirement because of COVID-19, but far more new clinicians are also opting for specialty practices that are more lucrative.
To address the shortage, a new report from the New Jersey Healthcare Quality Institute recommends several key steps that other states like Massachusetts and Oregon have taken in adjusting reimbursement rates for primary care.
“What we want is for all of the health plans across the state to really commit to how they’re going to support hybrid models of payment,” said Linda Schwimmer, executive director of the New Jersey Healthcare Quality Institute. “For instance, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services has a model called Primary Care First. Very few of the health plans in New Jersey participated in that model.”
