Physician shortage areas and policies to influence practice location.

Our intention is to examine the common assumption that physician supply is related strongly to more direct measures of economic shortage. The concept of a medical shortage defined by untreated illness or excess rates of preventable illness is not considered here. We examine the more policy-specific issue of whether the present shortage areas include the most extreme areas, based on these indicators of market tightness. If supply is a poor predictor of shortage, then more direct measures or other more carefully targeted policies should be explored.