ALBANY -- Long waits at your doctor's office may not get shorter anytime soon. A recent report found there is a growing shortage of primary care physicians.Experts in the field say for almost a decade there has been a shortage of primary care physicians. Meaning more people are using your doctor and appointments are harder to get.Dr. Mark Oldendorf says, "Actually it takes four or five months to get in to see me for a routine yearly physical.Dr. Oldendorf says medical students today are bypassing family care and choosing a more lucrative, more specialized medical practice."In fact, I interviewed a physician assistant just yesterday who told me the most recent class from Albany Med., out of 150 students only two went into family practice," Dr. Oldendorf said.He also says a big reason for that is money. He is paid by reimbursements from Medicaid for every patient he sees. However, he says those reimbursements are low.According to a breakdown of Medicaid payments by Forbes, New York is tied with Rhode Island for the lowest in the country.A shortage of primary care physicians maybe felt more in Massachusetts than in New York State. In 2006 the Commonwealth passed healthcare reform, meaning more people in Massachusetts have access to insurance that did not before. A spokesman for one hospital says those primary care physicians, who were backed up to begin with now have even more patients to try and help. Massachusetts resident Russell Freedman is one of them. "If it is an emergency, if I have a real problem, I can usually get into the see him or someone else within 24 hours. For a physical it takes me six weeks," he says.Michael Leary, who works in media relations for Berkshire Health Systems tells CBS 6 News, "how have the patients, I guess for a lack of a better term, suffered because of the shortage? Well the shortage makes it more difficult to get, what some patients may consider a timely appointment." Officials at Berkshire Health Systems say they are attracting new family care doctors to the area by hiring them to work for hospitals instead of opening up their own practice. This allows doctors to be paid by the hospital instead of relying on Medicaid reimbursement.
