Championing Women on the Rise in Medicine

Three years ago, the American Geriatrics Society released a position statement outlining the critical importance of women's leadership within geriatrics. This guidance makes sense as women are statistically more likely to outlive men. Older women often feel more comfortable confiding in a female physician, especially one who is a member of their own cultural or ethnic community. But more importantly, as the AGS statement puts it, “when women rise, we all rise.”

Women are certainly on the rise in medicine, making up about 37% of US physicians in 2022, according to a June report by Statista. The AAMC’s most recent data shows that more than half of medical students are women, and 51% of all primary care physicians are women. 

Here at ChenMed, we know the power and potential of women physicians all too well. As a physician-led company, women represent 64% of our physician partners. We offer an environment where supportive women colleagues surround women physicians. Our primary care physician compensation allows our physicians to have economic opportunities only seen in specialty medicine, and we encourage work-life balance for all our team members. Beyond that, our one-of-a-kind fellowship training and leadership pathways allow women to develop key skills and pursue important growth opportunities. 

Because we understand that happier, healthier primary care providers provide the best care, including women physicians, we have become a recognized national leader, with Newsweek naming ChenMed as the #1 most loved healthcare company and #8 overall company in its list of America's 100 Most Loved Workplaces 2022, citing our ongoing commitment to diversity.

Understanding the challenges women face in medicine

Unfortunately, the US healthcare system, dominated by the fee-for-service (FFS) model, has proven slow to catch on to the benefits associated with women physicians. Many studies show that women physicians have better patient outcomes; for example, female patients have better postoperative outcomes with female surgeons, while older hospitalized patients of all genders have lower mortality rates and readmission rates with female hospitalists.

Yet, within the last five years, studies have found that medical societies, including the American Academy of Neurology, the Association of Academic Physiatrists, and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, still give significantly fewer recognition awards to women physicians. Women earn almost 25% less than male physicians. In academic medicine, women struggle to find solid mentorship and are more likely to be passed up for leadership roles.

Furthermore, women physicians experience more burnout than their male counterparts, partly because our society still expects them to keep up with more care tasks at home and work than male physicians. 

Due to the aforementioned factors, many women physicians choose to leave medicine, while patients, clinical colleagues, and the entire healthcare system suffer from the loss of their talent.

The feasibility of gender equity in a fee-for-service system

The lack of women in medical leadership can largely be attributed to a ‘stereotype-based cognitive bias.’ For example, there is an assumption that a woman will leave a leadership role as soon as she becomes pregnant, that she isn’t “strong enough for leadership,” or that she won’t lead as well as another male candidate. These conscious or unconscious assumptions can factor into decisions about hiring or promoting women to certain positions. Not to mention salary considerations. 

When you combine these antiquated stereotypes within a FFS system, which places billing over the human element in medicine, there’s not much incentive to challenge implicit or explicit biases or change the broken systems that keep them in place. 

However, ChenMed’s fully capitated model aims to improve patient quality of life and patient outcomes, not increase billable services. This means our physicians have smaller patient panels and a renewed sense of passion and purpose for their profession. By prioritizing people and culture over volume, we’re uniquely positioned to have tough conversations, dismantle those cognitive biases, and foster an inclusive environment that celebrates equity for all.

Additionally, ChenMed is naturally suited to the kind of care many women physicians bring to the table. Spending more time with patients in the FFS world adds up to less pay. Our full-risk model allows women and men to spend more time with patients longitudinally without tying a physician's salary to production volumes.

Paving the path to clinical leadership for women

At ChenMed, we’re very deliberate about getting women physicians involved in leadership. Our immersive Fellowship in Transformative Care offers experiential learning that fast-tracks participants for leadership growth in transformative care. Women and men who participate have access to dedicated mentors, specialized training, and hands-on coaching. 

We also offer career pathways for all our partners in our primary care track or our clinical leader track. These kinds of professional growth opportunities can allow women to shine in primary care and medicine in general. And even as ChenMed continues to break down barriers, we acknowledge that there is still more work to achieve equity for women providers. 

Today, the healthcare industry must continue challenging assumptions around gender roles in medicine. Both practical and academic medicine requires an influx of diverse female leadership. Women physicians must mentor female residents and young physicians, as well as mid-career and late-career physicians, so career-long mentorship becomes the norm.

As the US healthcare system undergoes a seismic shift towards values-based and transformative care, women physicians deserve, and should demand, alternatives to the fee-for-service model. These alternative models must support them as trusted colleagues, offer growth opportunities, and economic health and sustainability while correcting the harm done by decades of entrenched attitudes and policies. 

As a transformative primary care leader, ChenMed will continue to train and elevate talented women physicians while supporting all our physicians, team members, and patients as valuable individuals.

Learn more about ChenMed’s unique approach to transformative primary care and how you can get involved in our Fellowship in Transformative Primary Care.