Series to dive into New Mexico's doctor shortage

New Mexico is facing a doctor shortage that is “now all hands on deck,” according to one New Mexico state senator.

“There’s 100,000 projected national shortage, 50,000 in primary care,” said Sen. Martin Hickey, M.D. “There are currently 2,500 open physician positions here in the state being advertised by the Workforce Solutions Department. That’s how big the gap is.”

Determining how many more doctors are needed in the state is not a straightforward formula, and it’s not just about the current numbers, either, Hickey said. “It’s really digging into what is driving the lack of access to care, certainly the number of professionals, but the other big factor that’s coming is the aging of the population. … When you look at the aging of the population in New Mexico, we are one of the oldest states in the country.

“As you look at this wave coming through, it isn’t just what we’re short now; it’s what we’re going to be short in three or four years. So now some people will tell you, ‘Oh, maybe it’s only 400-500,’” he said. “Now, when you go in and really take the numbers apart in terms of what the demand is going to be, it’s more like 800 or 900. That’s almost 100% more than we have today.”

Dr. Julie Harrigan, founder and CMO of Physician EHR Solutions, LLC, who practices in New Mexico and several states, said the aging population will also impact the number of doctors available. “A lot of them are actually aging out, and we had a number of them retire over the last five to seven years,” she said.

“This is not a problem that’s unique to New Mexico. There’s a shortage of primary care physicians, there’s a shortage of specialists — especially in rural areas — all across the country. However, I do think that we have some circumstances that are very uniquely New Mexican.”

One issue she noted was a noncompete clause a large New Mexico medical group had that caused an exodus of providers. “It caused many providers, I think like 120 providers, to exit the state just to get out of that. And most of those providers that exited the state have not come back,” Harrigan said, noting that she, in fact, was one of those providers.

“I went to work in Tennessee,” she said, noting that though she lives in Albuquerque, it’s easier to commute.

One of the issues that inspired the series was the lack of general care providers in the state. Harrigan noted it has taken her six months to get in to see her provider.

There’s also a concern about the lack of specialists in the state.

“I know some specialists who say, ‘I need this other specialty, and I can’t get him an appointment, and I can’t finish with my specialty area until this other specialty area (is complete), but we can’t get in to see him,’” Hickey said.

He said it’s one of the issues he’s campaigning on, noting that he heard the frustrations of not being able to get in to see a doctor when he was out collecting signatures. “People cannot get in to get care because they aren’t available,” he said.

“This is such a fundamental issue; it goes through various administrations,” Hickey said. “It’s something that we as a legislature … are going to have to with deal it and provide the leadership to do so.”

That’s part of what the Health of New Mexico series will do. Legislators have been invited in to discuss, episode by episode, some of the issues unique to the state that are driving away doctors or preventing them from setting up their practice here and options for retaining them. The first episodes explore Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement, the patient compensation fund, and GRT and tax incentives. Harrigan will provide insight into what she sees in other states and how it could possibly be implemented in New Mexico. It also explore the impact on the patients.

“If you can’t get in to see your primary care physician in six to eight months, how sick are you going to be by the time you land at the hospital?” Harrigan posited when talking about the trickle-down effect of policies that is forcing clinicians to close their doors. “How many tumors are you missing? How many stage-four cancers are you missing?”

“If we don’t solve this problem, chronic disease festers, and when it festers, it explodes,” Hickey said. “And when it explodes, it becomes 10 times more expensive than it would have been had it been cared for regularly along the way.”

Look for Episode 1, on Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement, of the Health of New Mexico series next week in the Rio Rancho Observer.