This report is made pursuant to Contract No. 240-83-0112 with the Health Resources and Services Administration. The amount charged to the Department of Health and Human Services for the work resulting in this report (inclusive of the amount submitted under the contract) is $8,081.90. The names of the persons employed or retained by the contractor, with managerial or professional responsibility for such work, or for the content of the report, are as follows:

Comparative Evaluation of National Health Service Corps Alumni Retained in Health Manpower Shortage Areas: Research Design

• In 1978, both psychiatrists and a nonmedical professional group (lawyers) were more abundant in more populous, urbanized states. Lawyer-population ratios, however, correlated more strongly with the population's wealth; psychiatrist-population ratios correlated more strongly with the percentage of state population with college education and with state-mandated private insurance coverage of psychiatric services (both probable indexes of market demand). Even after controlling for population size and education, state-mandated insurance coverage was significantly related to the abundance of psychiatrists. Moreover, mandating states increased their psychiatrist-population ratios 100% faster after mandating coverage, whereas nonmandating states increased their ratios only 25% faster in comparable periods. While we investigate psychiatrists' geographic distribution, public policy formation can be aided if we also seek better measures of access and barriers to psychiatric care.

Ruth Lis

Papers

The effect of economic incentives on the education and distribution of physicians: a review.