A census of actively licensed physicians in the United States, 2012

Abstract

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, signed into law in 2010 and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year, is expected to provide health care coverage to as many as 32 million Americans by 2019. As demand for health care expands, the need for accurate data about the current and future physician workforce will remain paramount. This census of actively licensed physicians in the United States and the District of Columbia represents data received from state medical boards in 2012 by the Federation of State Medical Boards. It demonstrates that the total population of licensed physicians (878,194) has expanded by 3% since 2010, is slightly older, has more women, and includes a substantive increase in physicians who graduated from a medical school in the Caribbean. As state medical boards begin to collect a Minimum Data Set about practicing physicians and their practice patterns in the years ahead, this information will inform decisions by policymakers, regulators and health care market participants to better align health care demand with supply.