Health care shortages in Nevada are a proven source of frustration for many, but U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra believes it’s also an opportunity.
“Nevada is growing, Nevada is new, and Nevada is facing the challenge of what’s new: medical school and residencies aren’t the go-to places for people who want to be doctors,” said Becerra. said Mr.
Becerra made the comments Thursday at a roundtable at Roseman College with U.S. Rep. Susie Lee and leaders of local colleges and medical groups.he discussed HHS Health Workforce Initiative, Released in July It is designed to support programs that develop more health professionals while identifying potential policy barriers.
Becera He asked Nevada leadership to submit proposals to HHS to address the shortage through new initiatives and expansion of settlements. “Nevada will be a great test case for us.
Every county in Nevada has shortage of family doctors and mental health provider.of The state is short of nearly every specialty provider, from: OB GYNTo dentist.
According to 2021 data from the Association of Medical Colleges of America, Nevada ranks 45th in the nation for the number of active physicians per capita, 48th for primary care physicians, and 49th for general surgeons.
The state will need an additional 2,561 doctors to meet national standards, according to a peer-reviewed report. article About the shortage of health care workers in the state.
“We in Nevada have to bemoan our position all the time because of the challenges we face. said Mr. “We were one of the last metropolitan areas to have a public medical school … More than half of Nevada’s 17 counties have no hospitals or midwives offering maternity services, and Nevada has one-star acute care facilities. Inpatient hospitals have the highest percentage, and clearly a major factor in poor access is the lack of workers.”
The panel also discussed Nevada health care reimbursement rates by insurers, including ensuring pay parity for telemedicine and mental health care, and facilitating the licensing process for people who were medical professionals in other countries. surfaced at
“We are trying to do everything we can to accelerate the movement towards the provision of adequate mental health services, but we are well behind. The company is working hard to adequately compensate behavioral service providers,” Becerra said. “What we hear from health care providers is that they don’t get the same level of coverage as people who stay physically or regularly healthy.”
These equality and licensing issues have highlighted the need for policy reform in Congress in 2023.
Three years ago, Nevada began tracking why professionals were denied entry into insurance plans by insurers, with the top reason being lack of specialization, according to a Nevada Department of Denials study. Or it was out of the service area. Insurance (DOI) 2020, 2021 and 2022.
This description was cited more than three times as often as all other options.
In 2020, 324 insurers across all specialties were denied entry into the state’s insurer network. In 2021, a total of 624 providers were rejected. By 2022, 918 providers have been rejected. Those denied included obstetricians and gynecologists, mental health professionals, and dental care professionals.
However, policies such as making insurance companies accept any provider their network was gutted,Prohibit corporate hospitals and hospital systems from hiring doctors directly veto was invoked of Congress in 2023.
Ultimately, for the federal government to help Nevada’s healthcare shortage, Nevada must first: policy Becerra said it’s state-mandated, like a license, creating a meaningful effort to keep medical professionals in the state.
“In some ways, Nevada is still a wild west, still a wild land when it comes to healthcare, and what we’re told we can do at our level, at the federal level, we can’t do in more established places. . ” He said.
