Challenge of identifying the size of the primary care physician workforce: Comparison of two sources of physician supply data in Nebraska

The challenge of recruiting and retaining health care workers to areas in need has been an ongoing problem that has renewed focus with the passage of health reform, underscored by the creation in 2010 of a National Health Care Workforce Commission. To develop innovative solutions, there is a need for accurate data on the health care workforce. The aim of this study is to research the quality of data on the supply of primary care physicians. We compared data on the supply of primary care physicians in Nebraska from two sources. Currently, key national organizations use the American Medical Association (AMA) Physician Masterfile to produce estimates and projections of the physician supply. We compared this source of data with an ongoing data collection effort by the Health Professional Tracking Services (HPTS). The HPTS uses a registry of licensed physicians and identifies whether the physicians are currently active in the community along with several other physician and practice characteristics. Based on the AMA Masterfile data, the Center for Workforce Study reports from AAMC found higher number of primary care physicians actively practicing in Nebraska by around 30% each year from 2007-2010. Analysis of the HPTS data revealed a younger and a smaller primary care physician workforce in Nebraska.The findings from our study suggest that states should develop a systematic strategy for enumerating the physician workforce given that differences in data collection techniques can lead to different estimates of the primary care physician workforce.