The Palm Beach Post has a healthcare series called Aging in the Golden Years focused on navigating the financial and physical challenges to emerge as more people reach advanced age and, along with their children, confront a reality for which they will need help preparing. We want to hear what questions you have as you and your loved ones enter new territory. Email Post reporter Anne Geggis your questions at ageggis@gannett.com.
Q. I tried finding someone who specializes in geriatrics as a primary doctor or a specialist and was unable to do so. Why can’t I find someone who specializes in patients my age who can give me advice based on my demographics, rather than those in general?
A. Seventy-six-year-old Joe Rosen of Palm Beach Gardens, who pegs himself as a “fairly healthy guy” considering his attendance on the golf course, hiking trail and pickleball court, is coming up against a national problem. Physicians overall are in short supply and those in certain specialties — including geriatrics — are particularly scarce.
The country has about 7,500 board-certified geriatricians — nearly one of them for every 10,000 older adults, according to a 2024 article in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society. And the situation is not getting any better. The 80-and-older set are projected to be the fastest-growing segment of the population in the next 25 years, according to the National Institutes of Health. But the rate of future doctors getting matched to geriatric fellowships in 2022-23 was among the lowest of all medical subspecialties, that same peer-reviewed article says.
Specialty scarcity
Further evidence suggests geriatricians are not coming to practice in Florida. Just 6% of the country’s doctors specializing in geriatrics work in the Sunshine State, where about 20% of the country’s 65-and-older population lives.
The situation has a geriatrics expert at Florida Atlantic University’s medical school calling for a shift in strategy.
Rosen’s primary care physician, he says, told him that by virtue of practicing in Florida, she’s become focused on geriatrics. But later information he came by suggested she’s evaluating his stats such as cholesterol level and the prostate-specific antigen numbers by what’s appropriate for a much-younger man, he said.
“When I go to look at what I should be doing as a well 76-year-old, there’s not a lot of information out there,” said Rosen, a retired federal law enforcement and lawyer.
Aging complexities
Rosen is not wrong for sensing the deficit in the expertise that a primary care physician — even one in Florida — can offer him, said Dr. Joseph Ouslander, a professor of geriatric medicine and senior advisor to the dean for geriatrics at the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine at Florida Atlantic University.
Primary care doctors, he said, “have a lot of experience with older people, but at the same time, they don’t know a lot of the key principles of taking care of older people.”
Falls and incontinence, for example, are two areas that primary care physicians don’t have the training to recognize, Ouslander said.
In a paper he co-authored that was published February 2025, Ouslander, the editor-in-chief for the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, recommends developing a core of clinician-educators who are certified in geriatrics to train primary care and other specialists in the core principles of caring for older people.
More investigation required
Dr. David Billmeier, a family practice physician in Daytona Beach, has enough experience with caring for older people to understand how aging’s challenges warrant more of a doctor’s time and resources that billing codes don’t consider. Billmeier, whose specialty has also been flagged for the dearth of providers, said he’d like to see some kind of incentive added for evaluating all the complexities that aging bodies more often present. Mobility challenges, declining cognitive ability, and prescriptions that might interact are just the starters.
“Let’s face it, it takes a lot of time and patience to care for the elderly,” Billmeier said. “This may lend itself to less compensation and more provider burnout.”
The Palm Beach Post series, Aging in the Golden Years, focuses on navigating the financial and physical challenges that arise as more people reach advanced age. Thanks to our partner and fiscal sponsor, Journalism Funding Partners, verified 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, tax ID #84-2968843, you can invest in the future of this reporting on the healthcare issues that matter most to Floridians. Make your tax-deductible donation today and support local journalism that serves the Palm Beach community.
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Anne Geggis is the insurance reporter at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at ageggis@gannett.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Reader question: Where are the geriatric specialist docs?
Reporting by Anne Geggis, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
