The demand for behavioral health services has been increasing due to heightened awareness of mental illnesses and a greater willingness among patients to seek help for these often-stigmatized medical conditions.
However, market research suggests that physician supply has not been able to keep pace. As a result, many hospitals are experiencing difficulties securing sufficient physician resources for behavioral health services. Here are seven things you need to know that could be affecting supply, demand, and the future of physician compensation for behavioral health services:
1. Nearly 1 in 25, or 10-million adults in America live with a serious mental illness, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Of adults with a mental illness, 60% received no mental health services in the previous year.
2. One in 5 children between the ages of 13 and 18 have, or will have, a serious mental illness. An even more startling observation is that the average delay between the onset of mental health symptoms and intervention for these children is 8 to 10 years.
3. Nationwide, as of September 2016, there were over 4,400 mental health professional shortage areas (HPSAs)—defined as areas with less than one mental health professional to every 30,000 residents—according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. This is an increase of 12.2% from the last count of almost 4,000 in April 2014. It is estimated that approximately 2,800 additional practitioners would be needed to eradicate the HPSA designations for mental health. The shortages were noted to be more acute in states with lower population density such as South Dakota, Montana, Alaska, and New Mexico, where less than 25% of needs were met according to the Kaiser Foundation.
4. The number of active physicians in the field of psychiatry declined between 2010 and 2015 by 1.4%, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Of the approximately 37,700 psychiatrists providing active patient care in the U.S. in 2015, 60% were 55 years old or older, and approaching retirement, according to AAMC.
5. Psychiatrists were second on the list of the most requested recruiting assignments in 2017 in a study conducted by Merritt Hawkins, a leading physician search and consulting firm. This is the second time psychiatry has received this ranking in the 24 years that Merritt Hawkins has been conducting its “Review of Physician and Advanced Practitioner Recruiting Incentives” study, supplanting internal medicine. An 11.3% increase was observed in the number of searches for psychiatrists performed by Merritt Hawkins between 2015 and 2017.
6. With the increasing demand for behavioral health services outpacing the number of physicians practicing in the field of psychiatry, physician compensation for psychiatrists has been “on the rise.” Per Merritt Hawkins, starting salaries increased by 11.0% from $226,000 to $250,000 between 2015 and 2016 and another 5.2% to $263,000 by 2017.
7. Productivity of psychiatrists has also been on the rise. Based on benchmark data from the 2017 American Medical Group Association (AMGA) Medical Group Compensation and Productivity Survey and 2017 Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) Physician Compensation and Production Survey, annual work relative value units (wRVU) for psychiatrists increased from 4,030 to 4,204 on average at the median or 4.3%.
The demand for psychiatrists will continue to outpace supply in the near term driving the need for creative recruitment strategies to hire and retain physicians. Psychiatrists appear to be making up for the decline in physician resources by increasing their individual workload.
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