ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, September 4, 1996 TAG: 9609040120
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHICAGO
Because of the growth of managed care, the demand for general practitioners is catching up to the demand for specialists.
Researchers studied recruitment advertisements in medical journals and found that in 1990 there were four ads for specialists - such as anesthesiologists and orthopedic surgeons - for every generalist position advertised. By 1995, the ratio had dropped to 1.8 to 1.
The researchers, led by Dr. Sarena Seifer, a professor at the Center for Medical Education Research at the University of Washington in Seattle, attributed the shift to the spread of managed care, which controls costs by using primary care doctors as gatekeepers to specialists, who charge more.
The findings were published in today's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Numerous studies have warned that too many doctors are specializing and too few are going into primary care, such as family practice, internal medicine and pediatrics.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Short : 30 linesby CNB