Biden administration invests in geriatric care training
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The Biden administration is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to train primary care clinicians to better serve older adults, officials announced Monday.
Why it matters: America faces a shortage of geriatricians, who specialize in health care for patients over 65 years old. Training primary care providers in geriatrics will make it easier for older adults to get the care they need, the Health Resources and Services Administration said in a news release.
Zoom in: The Biden administration gave about $206 million to 42 different academic institutions across the country.
- The programs will also help family members and community caregivers learn how to care for their aging loved ones, including those with Alzheimer's and related dementias.
- Improving primary care is associated with lower overall health costs.
By the numbers: The country will be nearly 30,000 geriatricians short in 2025, an earlier HRSA report found.
The big picture: Little exposure to geriatric care during training may contribute to the dearth of young doctors going into the subspecialty, the National Resident Matching Program, which oversees physician training placement, said last year.
- Poor insurance reimbursement compared with other specialties is another likely factor. Geriatricians see almost exclusively patients with Medicare, which pays less than commercial insurance, and they tend to see fewer patients than internists, the Washington Post reported in March.
