Get The Facts: How to navigate Alabama's family doctor shortage
Alabama is grappling with a significant shortage of family doctors, leading to long wait times and difficulty finding physicians accepting new patients, with experts highlighting several contributing factors and innovative solutions emerging in rural areas.
"There is a health care shortage just across the board," said Dr. Hernando Carter from the Medical Association of the State of Alabama.
He emphasized the need for 600 more family doctors in the state by 2030, citing low insurance reimbursement rates, excessive administrative work, and high medical malpractice payments as contributing factors.
"If we don't have those 600 primary care providers, big trouble," Dr. Carter said. These challenges are causing physicians to leave the state, retire early, or switch professions. "It's causing physicians to say I don't want to practice in this environment so they're leaving, they're retiring early, they're changing to other professions... not what we need in Alabama," he said.
Neighboring states are recruiting Alabama's doctors, exacerbating the issue.
"We're losing providers from Texas to Georgia to Tennessee," Dr. Carter said.
Some doctors in Alabama are opting to start concierge practices, accepting fewer patients who pay a subscription fee.
"It allows the physicians to have more time to spend with their patients and focus on the care the way they want to," Dr. Carter said, though he noted this does not address the broader need for more accessible care. "It reduces administrative burden, but it does not supply what we need in Alabama which is more physicians with their doors open to take care of our citizens," he said.
Rural areas
Dr. John Waits, CEO of Cahaba Medical Care, has been practicing in Centerville for over 20 years and noticed the shortage of family medicine physicians.
"The shortage of the family medicine physicians has been kind of a slow burn over the last several decades," Dr. Waits said.
In response, he launched the in 2012, focusing on training doctors in rural areas.
"We needed our training programs to work in outpatient and rural areas," Dr. Waits said. The typical route to become a family doctor involves four years of undergraduate study, four years of medical school, and a three-year residency, but Dr. Waits noted that doctors in training spend very little time in rural health care during those three years.
"In addition to us showing them a good experience and good training, I think the critical variable is three years not three weeks. They end the training program thinking 'I can do this,'" Dr. Waits said.
The residency program has shown promising results, with Bibb County no longer facing a doctor shortage.
Physicians in training see patients and so there's a workforce shortage reduction just from having the training program," Dr. Waits said.
The program boasts that the percentage of the alumni that work in rural and underserved areas are significantly higher than the national averages.
The program has expanded to Perry and Wilcox counties, and Dr. Waits believes other counties can implement similar initiatives. "What we're doing takes a ton of work and a lot of elbow grease and every other metaphor you can think of, but it's something that can be done," Dr. Waits said.
While there are many challenges in getting a family doctor right now, Dr. Carter emphasized the importance of finding a primary care doctor.
"When you're able to find a primary care doctor and you become a part of that primary care practice, they're going to take care of you," he said.
How to navigate the shortage
To find a family doctor, residents are encouraged to ask family, friends, and coworkers for recommendations, check with their insurance providers, and explore resources from the and . In underserved communities, being open to traveling further for care may also be necessary.