Representative Gabriel Rodríguez Aguiló filed a legislative proposal for health insurers to accept, on a transitional basis, the number assigned by Medicare to new physicians, while they complete the credentialing process to obtain their permanent provider number.

Currently, according to the measure, it takes insurers more than a year to respond to a physician if he or she will be hired, which ends up being a stumbling block for recently graduated physicians who wish to serve in Puerto Rico.

“What this bill seeks is that, if they already have their Medicare license and accreditation, insurers are obliged to recognize that provisional number so that they can start working immediately as health providers,” explained the chairman of the House Health Committee, detailing the content of House Bill 850.

The lengthy provider accreditation process, added the PNP (in Spanish) representative, generates economic losses for professionals and limits access to medical services, particularly in areas with a high demand for specialists.

Likewise, he pointed out that the lack of doctors is reflected in the difficulty patients have in obtaining appointments that, in some cases, take more than a year. “Here is an alternative that, although it does not solve the whole problem, it will allow more recently graduated doctors to enter the system immediately and increase the availability of services for the citizenry,” he stressed.

This is one of several factors that, over the years, have been identified by the organizations that group together the medical profession as having an impact on the retention of health professionals. There is also the termination and modification of contracts with physicians, the denial of payments and the creation of preferential networks.

A study published earlier this year by the Fiscal Oversight Board (FOSB) revealed that Puerto Rico suffers a deficit of 1,286 specialist physicians, a figure that -if no action is taken- would be around 1,305 in 2030, before gradually declining due to the projected long-term decline in population. However, with the continuing change in the profile of the population - especially the aging trend - not all areas of medical care will have the same demand in the future.

The “Health Industry Workforce Study” also reflected that, regionally and in general terms, the Arecibo, Ponce and Mayagüez regions are the most affected by the shortage of specialists, who tend to be concentrated in the San Juan metropolitan area, to the detriment of the inhabitants of rural towns.

“We hear a lot about the lack of doctors, and we all know how difficult it is to get an appointment. This bill opens a door so that more professionals can serve without unnecessary delays and our patients have more access to the care they need," Rodríguez Aguiló said, adding that the piece of legislation is aligned with the governor’s public policy Jenniffer González, who has established as a priority to retain the new generation of doctors and streamline the credentialing processes in the health system.

The Legislature has before it for consideration other measures with the same purpose, such as Senate Bill (PS) 508, to eliminate the pre-medical requirement as a condition to apply for revalidation in medicine, modernize the administrative processes for the application and recertification of licenses, and facilitate the integration into local practice of physicians licensed in the federal jurisdiction.