1. How are physicians who specialize in Family Medicine different from General Practitioners (physicians who complete a one-year internship after medical school and begin practicing)? One can see all kinds of patients as a GP, so what is the primary motivation to specialize in FM?
Some states require more than 1 year to get an unrestricted license.
A lot of insurance companies/PPOs/HMOs require their physicians to be "board certified" or at least board eligible.
A lot of hospitals require their physicians to be board certified or board eligible in order to get hospital priviledges (just as admission, seeing patients who are hospitalized, writing orders, ordering labs, etc)
A lot of malpractice insurance carriers would not insure a non-board certified (or board eligible) physician .... and if you do find a carrier that would insure you, expect higher premiums (since you are statistically more likely to be sued, and more likely to have have payoffs from these suits)
You will have a hard time finding a small group or hospitals who will hire you with only a year experience of residency under your belt. You can try to open up your own practice, but again, you have to have initial operating capital, along with dealing with insurance/medicaid/medicare and hospital priviledges
But most importantly, you will not be ready for independent practice with only 1 year of residency experience. Primary care is hard. Your average patient will have multiple medical issues, chronic diseases, and also acute complaints. The more you train, the more you realize how much you don't know. Ask any intern near the end of intern year if they are ready for private practice, and almost any sane intern will say NO. Ask any senior near the end of residency if they are ready to fly solo, and many will still say no
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American healthcare is changing and complex. It's not your simple strep throat, or aches/pains. It's your patient with diabetes, morbid obesity, COPD, chronic kidney disease, heart failure with history of MI, presenting with shortness of breath - and you have 15 minutes to complete your workup and assessment before moving to the next patient.
If that patient was your parent, would you want someone with only 1 year of GME training, or a board certified family medicine doctor (who has completed residency, have supervised experience as well as taken care of sick patients under the guidance of multiple attending physicians, and have passed a test showing competence)?
