New SAT Writing and Language Practice Test 21

The Physician Assistant Will See You Now

Q1The term “paramedics” refers to health care workers who provide routine and clinical services. While the pressures of an aging population, insurance reforms, and health epidemics have increased demand for care, the supply of physicians is not expected to Q2keep pace. The Association of American Medical Colleges predicts a shortage of over 90,000 physicians by 2020; by 2025, that number could climb to more than 130,000. In some parts of the country, shortages are already a sad fact of life. A 2009 report by the Bureau of Health Professions notes that although a fifth of the US population lives in rural areas, less than a tenth of US physicians serves that population. Because a traditionalist response to the crisis— Q3amping up medical-college enrollments and expanding physician training programs—is too slow and costly to address the near-term problem, alternatives are being explored. One promising avenue has been greater reliance on physician assistants (PAs).

Q4 By virtue of Q5there medical training, PAs can perform many of the jobs traditionally done by doctors, including treating chronic and acute conditions, performing minor Q6surgeries: and prescribing some medications. However, although well Q7compensated earning in 2012 a median annual salary of $90,930, PAs cost health care providers less than do the physicians who might otherwise undertake these tasks. Moreover, the training period for PAs is markedly shorter than Q8those for physicians—two to three years versus the seven to eleven required for physicians.

Physician assistants already offer vital primary care in many locations. Some 90,000 PAs were employed nationwide in 2012. Over and above their value in partially compensating for the general physician shortage has been their extraordinary contribution to rural health care. A recent review of the scholarly literature by Texas researchers found that PAs lend cost-efficient, widely appreciated services in underserved areas. Q9In addition, rural-based PAs often provide a broader spectrum of such services than do their urban and suburban counterparts, possibly as a consequence of the limited pool of rural-based physicians.

Increasingly, PAs and other such medical practitioners have become a critical complement to physicians. A 2013 RAND Corporation report estimates that while the number of primary care physicians will increase slowly from 2010 to 2025, the number of physician assistants and nurse-practitioners in primary care will grow at much faster rates. Q10 Both by merit and from necessity, PAs are likely to greet more Q11patience than ever before.