Review and Update of the 1995 Physical
Medicine and Rehabilitation Workforce Study
Conclusions about the supply of and demand for
physiatrists that were derived from a 1995 workforce study of the specialty of
physical medicine and rehabilitation are little changed as a result of a 1998
follow-up study by The Lewin Group. The study was done in collaboration with
the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, the Association
of Academic Physiatrists, the American Board of Physical Medicine and
Rehabilitation, and the American Physiatric Education Council.
The 1995 study projected the supply of and demand for
physiatrists through 2015, using actual data from 1994 as a baseline.
Assumptions that were made about the number of PM&R residency positions
there would be in the future, and the rate at which those positions would be
filled, determined the projected growth in the number of practicing
physiatrists. The projected demand for the services provided by physiatrists
resulted from assumptions that were made about the growth and acceptance of
managed care plans and the success of efforts by the PM&R specialty to
educate plan managers and health care consumers about the effectiveness and
efficiency of the services that physiatrists provide.
The 1998 study was based on 1996-1997 actual data and
was concentrated on specific topics or areas in which new information or other
factors may have called into question the underlying assumptions of the 1995
study. Topics identified by the study’s Technical Advisory Group (TAG)
included supply side issues (residency training slots, retirement patterns,
clinical practice hours); demand side issues (growth of managed care plans,
impact of competing specialties, the federal government’s role, the effect
of efforts to educate the market about physiatry’s benefits); and the
overall effect of all factors on demand. The issues were then considered by a
panel of physiatrists in December 1998.
As a result of its deliberations, the study panel was
slightly more optimistic about the effect of managed care growth on demand
than was reflected in the earlier study. Projections of residency positions
and new entrants into the specialty were slightly lower than in 1995, but the
net effects on supply were small.
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