No Evidence that Primary Care Physicians Offer Less Care to Medicaid, Community Health Center, or Uninsured Patients


September 3, 2013

Other Research

Using data from more than 31,000 visits to primary care physicians (2006–10) the author examine whether the length or content of a visit was different for safety-net patients—those insured by Medicaid, those who are uninsured, and those seen in a community health center—compared to patients with private insurance. They found no significant differences in the average length of a primary care visit or in the likelihood of a patient’s receiving preventive health counseling. Medicaid patients received more diagnostic and treatment services, and uninsured patients received fewer services, compared to privately insured patients, but the differences were small.

 

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