A growing body of literature argues that the availability and mix of physician specialties in areas is important for health outcomes. Areas with fewer specialists but higher generalists per capita were found to have better health outcomes or quality of care [21,22]. Goodman [23] found that greater physician supply is associated with both higher area income and lower mortality rates, and argued that regional variations in health outcomes and physician supply will exist as long as there are differences across communities in economic status. A long-standing tenet of state and federal physician workforce policy is that the provision of income supplements to physicians in rural areas will help attract physicians to these areas
