business
Medical practices not hiring; other health care jobs still growing
■ Experts blame uncertainty over Medicare payments for stalled physician office employment.
By Victoria Stagg Elliott — Posted May 28, 2010
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After months of adding new positions, hiring declined in physician offices in April. Demand for professionals in the health care industry as a whole, however, returned to prerecession levels, according to a pair of papers released in May.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics report on the employment situation, released May 7, found that physician offices lost 300 jobs after gaining 1,400 in March and 1,100 in February. Experts suspect that continuing uncertainty around Medicare's sustainable growth rate formula has left physicians wary about adding to the payroll.
"Many physicians, with a 21% Medicare cut pending, are very reluctant to hire new staff, and they may even be postponing replacing staff who leave," said David N. Gans, vice president of innovation and research for the Medical Group Management Assn.
But although physician offices may not be hiring much at the moment, the rest of the medical service industry is. Health care added 20,100 jobs in April, according to the BLS. This was far more than the 8,300 added in April 2009, but down from the 32,900 created in March of this year. Approximately 6,100 jobs were created in hospitals.
This job growth also is being reflected in a growth in online job advertisements.
The number of ads for health care practitioners and technicians, including physicians, grew 3,300 to 630,000 in April, according to the monthly report on the subject released May 3 by the Conference Board. This is on par with the number appearing before the recession began. Ads for medical support personnel increased 2,400 to 128,700.
