US Primary Care Workforce Growth: A Decade of Limited Progress, and Projected Needs Through 2040.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite efforts to mitigate a projected primary care physician (PCP) shortage required to meet an aging, growing, and increasingly insured population, shortages remain, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, growing inequity, and persistent underinvestment.

Objective

We examined primary care workforce trends over the past decade and revisited projected primary care clinician workforce needs through the year 2040.

Design and participants

Using data from the AMA Masterfile and Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), we analyzed trends in the number of primary care physicians (PCPs) and in outpatient PCP visits by age and gender over the past decade. We then used the Medicare PECOS and Physician & Other Practitioners datasets to identify nurse practitioners (NP

SUBMITTER: Bazemore AW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11802952 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature