One of the main reasons for the terrible Pathology Job Market has been the Pathology training programs. These programs have continued to train the same number of residents even though the job market has deteriorated badly. The Residency Program Directors should have known about the problem as far back as 1993, when the job market started deteriorating, but the decreases in residency positions have not kept up with the deteriorating job market. This is a considerable amount of money.
Reimbursements are proportional to the number of residents.
As a result, if the program substantially reduces the number of residents they have, there will be a proportionate decrease in reimbursements. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 reduced some of these reimbursements but did not completely eliminate them. In our opinion Pathologists will be in oversupply until these reimbursements are completely eliminated.