Urology In Texas Will Be Seeing A Few Challenges In The Near Future
By: Cory Ellerd
Submitted: 2010-05-04 14:44:15 | Word Count: 828
At other locales in the country, Urology in Texas is going through many of the same challenges as other specialties. Of the roughly 63,000 physicians in the state of Texas, 800 specialize in Urology. For many of the 800 Texas urologists whats to come is uncertain. Of those 800 urologists, 787 are M.D.'s and 88 are D.O.'s. While there may be some differences in training, both M.D.'s and D.O.'s are equally accredited and have the ability to become a Urologist / physician. A medical doctor of Urology typically has at least between eleven and thirteen years of instruction including a bachelors degree in a healthcare or science related area, a medical doctorate (graduate, Alleopathic or Osteopathic), and an accredited Urology residency (post-graduate).
Urology, the surgical specialty of urinary tracts and mens reproductive system, is a surely growing sphere for doctor in the United States. Currently, almost forty-three million males are afflicted with urological disorders.
[ advertisement ]
Urology Demographics
The NKF (National Kidney Foundation) states that urological conditions afflict 5% or more of the USA's residents, resulting in more than 260,000 deaths. Ethnic populations are at a reasonably greater risk. The leading contributing cause is age. The pharmaceutical industry is making a killing off of these issues, with revenues in 2008 reaching 1.6 billion bucks, and at this scale, by 2015 they will reach 3,000,000,000 dollars.
Weak Economy and Aging Population
The hesitating market has taken its toll on the sphere of Urology, and it isn't expected to get better any time before long. The cutting of jobs and access to healthcare is on the rise rapidly. Many doctors are no longer accepting new Medicare patients because of the poorer profit margins. With a smaller amount of doctors accepting Medicare patients, Urology offices are expected to become overburdened. Many specialties are expecting this same forecast, such as Emergency Medicine/Urgent Care, Family Practice, and Internal Medicine.
The baby boomer age bracket is also going to put a serious strain on this arena. With the dramatically increasing proportion of older patients, we are experiencing an influx of one age group, 65 and older, like we have never seen. Since a large part, if not the majority, of Urological conditions affect patients forty five and up, we are going to see the necessity for Urologists increase as well.
The asking price of services from these providers is anticipated to rise as well. With the economic principles of supply and demand at work, smaller amounts of providers matched with bigger demand will result in higher cost. Value of these services is irrelevant, being as value and cost operate independently. With a value, what it is worth to a consumer, lower than the cost, what a consumer must pay or sacrifice for it, more people will be ignoring urological disorders far longer than they should be. This will most likely result in permanent damage, increased and more intensive treatments, and/or emergency room visits. Emergency rooms are highly overburdened as it is, especially with the elderly demographic.
Health Insurance Reform
The recently passed healthcare reform is affecting most specialties in a similar way. The accepted projection for the medical field is that the prospective reforms being discussed will make Medicare patients unprofitable, thus resulting in a loss of physicians. With fewer doctors available to those not privately insured, quality of health for Medicare patients can only be expected to decrease. Another prospective factor is the preferential treatment of certain physician specialties, such as Internists and Family Practitioners. They will automatically receive 5-10% increases in reimbursements. Other specialties will only meet the criteria for these increased reimbursement rates if their caseloads are 50% or more of Medicare patients. It seems unfair that vital specialties like Urology may be overlooked. Many medical associations are lobbying to have these requirements made more inclusive.
However, even with the health bill finally signed into law, its effect on our health care is not known. By 2014 their will be an increase in the enrollment into health care insurance programs. This increase when, combined with the long term aging of the inhabitants, should push demand for services and for that reason, cost higher. However, no one yet knows what will happen to repayment rates from Medicare and this new program. The question is will there be rate a cut of reimbursement rates for different specialties by Medicare and this new program that may conversely become a decreasing factor of the income of all specialties including Urology, its related specializations, and subspecializations.
