Health Care
BY DANNY SCALISE. The U. S. health care system is in a state of flux. The landmark Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act enacted in 2010 has been and will continue to be challenged, and insurance premiums and deductibles are increasing for most people. To make matters worse, primary care physicians are getting harder to come by— especially in rural places like West Virginia.
According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, this country is on the cusp of a severe physician shortage. This phenomenon is hard on patients in places like New York or Chicago, but in rural states like West Virginia, the challenges are multiplied by distance, low income, aging population and lower levels of socioeconomic status. In the Mountain State, too many counties have too few primary care physicians. There are many complicating factors, such as the cost of medical education that drives physicians to opt for specializations, thereby increasing their income. When combined with the difficulty of setting up a small practice in a rural area, many students decide to forgo a career in primary care.
Another complicating factor for patients is that physicians are running shy on time because they are required to spend more time typing on a computer. Documentation of the visit and the myriad of forms physicians need to navigate to order tests or treatments are becoming more cumbersome, and each payer presents different requirements. This takes more time away from the patient, making the physician a data entry operator.
In recent years, West Virginia has relied on J1 visa waivers for foreign physicians. Some of the finest medical minds in West Virginia have come from abroad. However, the state does a decent job of producing homegrown physicians. The next step is to have more of them serve West Virginians. In the north, each graduating class at West Virginia University gives the state several physicians. The oldest medical school in West Virginia, it has been providing physicians to the Mountain State for years. Marshall University also provides physicians, and the largest supply of homegrown primary care physicians comes from the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine( WVSOM). WVSOM is the leading medical school in the nation for providing primary care physicians practicing in rural Appalachia.
The quality of the state’ s graduates is high, yet the number is not enough to sustain primary care in the state. West Virginia physicians using modern technologies such as telemedicine can alleviate some of the burden, but we need to have a robust broadband infrastructure and sound public policy that permits West Virginia physicians to care for their patients using these technologies and reduces regulatory burdens in the practice of medicine. There is no substitute for a strong patient-physician relationship, and technology should be a way for West Virginia physicians to see more of their patients. •
Congratulations to the members of the Lawyers & Leaders Class of 2018!
Todd Mount, member of the inaugural class of Lawyers & Leaders and member of Shaffer & Shaffer, is an experienced trial lawyer who focuses on insurance and commercial litigation.
Todd is active in his community and the Mountain State, serving as President of the Boone County Bar Association, Secretary of the Board of the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia, Vice Chair of the Board of the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation and member of the Board of the WVU Alumni Association. He works in both the Madison and Charleston offices of Shaffer & Shaffer as part of the firm’ s trusted insurance and business litigation team.
Contact him today at( 304) 369-0511 or tmount @ shaffer. net.
330 State Street Madison, WV 25130
2116 Kanawha Boulevard East Charleston, WV 25311
www. shafferlaw. net
WWW. WVEXECUTIVE. COM SUMMER 2018
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