Better income, hours in specialty medicine is fueling 'serious shortfall,' academy reports.

By LEIGH HOPPER
Houston Chronicle

In the not-too-distant future, patients may be unable to seek the advice of a family physician and, instead, find themselves hopping from one specialist to another as they struggle to manage multiple chronic ailments.

That's because Texas and at least four other states are heading for a "serious shortfall" of family physicians by 2020, a national doctors group predicts.

Population growth and the rising number of elderly people in Texas, Nevada, Arizona, Florida and Idaho will make the need most critical, said Dr. Perry Pugno of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

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