Foreign Physicians Can Help Solve America's Doctor Shortage

"America's physician shortage is nothing to sneeze at. For primary care alone, the country will be short more than 40,000 doctors by 2030. American Medical Association President Jesse Ehrenfeld calls it "an urgent crisis" as nearly 1 in 4 American doctors will hit retirement age by the end of the decade. The crisis will worsen as the population grows and ages.

There is a solution. States are starting to see the value of letting internationally licensed physicians help fill their doctor shortages. Govs. Kim Reynolds and Glenn Youngkin signed bills recently allowing Iowa and Virginia to join Tennessee, Florida, Wisconsin and Idaho to create a pathway for doctors practicing abroad to become fully licensed without completing unnecessary post-medical-school "residency" training in the U.S.

Previously, doctors licensed outside the U.S. had to come as trainees, or "medical residents," even if the training was repetitive. This meant top foreign doctors who treat professional athletes around the world, for example, could treat American athletes only overseas. Or doctors who wanted to help underserved communities in the U.S. would have to take lower pay and repeat training they had already completed in another country.

States all face their own challenges because the distribution of physicians across the country isn't uniform. Virginia ranks 33rd in the country for the supply of general surgeons, while Georgia ranks 41st in primary-care-physician supply. Michigan's doctor-patient ratio for psychiatry is 26% worse than the national average.

These bills have earned bipartisan support because the doctor shortage affects everyone -- whether Republican or Democrat, rural or urban. In Virginia, the bill's lead sponsor was Kathy Tran, who leads the Democratic caucus in the House of Delegates. Wisconsin similarly saw a partnership between Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican lawmakers. Near-unanimity in the Tennessee and Idaho legislatures and bipartisan sponsorship in Michigan show that despite partisan rancor, states can still solve important challenges together.

State medical boards are taking notice. In March, the Federation of State Medical Boards, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, and Intealth, an international organization that certifies medical training, announced an advisory commission to help states navigate these emerging pathways. Rather than fighting the momentum of reform, these organizations are choosing to improve state implementation.

Virginia's bill reflects needs on the ground, requiring international doctors to spend their third and fourth years of Virginia practice in a rural or underserved area. Idaho, on the other hand, has broader reach and fewer limits -- doctors licensed abroad need only practice for three years in a supervised setting in Idaho before they can apply for and receive an unrestricted license. It remains to be seen which pathway will attract more internationally licensed physicians. Idaho's law shows what can happen when advocates, medical boards, legislators and the executive branch proactively search for solutions.

Pending bills in Minnesota, Maine, Arizona, Michigan and Massachusetts all deserve to become law. Those states know that a doctor shortage is looming. They want to increase the number of practitioners, rather than merely trying to increase medical-school enrollment or train more residents in the next 10 years. Colorado and Illinois have also taken steps to address this issue by mandating that their state medical boards create licensing pathways for international physicians. Those pathways remain under development.

On Jan. 1, Tennessee stood alone as the only state allowing internationally licensed doctors to become fully licensed. By year's end, we may see more than 10 states with a legislative or administrative pathway on the books. As America searches for an answer to the looming catastrophe of patients losing access to care, foreign physicians should be called upon to help to fill those gaps. Every patient should have a doctor to see as soon as he needs one.

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Mr. Wolfson is chief legal officer and policy director at the Cicero Institute." [1]

One more pathway for Lithuanian doctors to get well deserved pay and respect that are missing in Lithuania. When Lithuanian supervisors of the doctors don't pay enough, they try to convince the doctors that they are somehow not worth it. Then destruction of person's self esteem based on harassment starts. Normal pay and respect are linked. Nothing is to sneeze here at.

1.  Cross Country: Foreign Physicians Can Help Solve America's Doctor Shortage. Wolfson, Jonathan.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 01 June 2024: A.11.