New Studies Provide Insights on Medicare Physician Trends

In 2006, most office-based physicians accepted new Medicare patients, according to data recently released by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC, which advises Congress on Medicare issues.

Those data, (19-page PDF; About PDFs) which were derived from the most recent National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, found that about 80 percent of the 300,000 office-based physicians surveyed accepted new Medicare patients in 2006; the same percentage of physicians reported treating patients in noncapitated private insurance plans that year. Only self-insured patients had a higher rate of acceptance by physicians, at about 88 percent, said John Richardson, principal policy analyst for MedPAC, who presented the findings during a MedPAC meeting here in December.

According to Richardson, 93 percent of physicians who depend on Medicare for 10 percent or more of their practice revenue accepted new Medicare patients in 2006, a rate that has remained stable since 2004.

MedPAC also presented data from its own 2007 survey that compared patient access to physician services under Medicare with access among patients in private insurance plans; the survey also compared the ability of patients to find new physicians through Medicare with that same ability among those in private insurance plans. This access-to-care survey, conducted from August to September of 2007, was based on a representative telephone sample of 2,036 Medicare beneficiaries 65 and older enrolled in both fee-for-service and managed care plans, as well as a sample of 2,025 privately insured individuals aged 50 to 64 who served as a comparison group.

The survey asked respondents whether they looked for a new physician during a one-year period from mid-2006 to mid-2007 and whether that physician was a primary care physician or a subspecialist. Only 353 of the 4,061 respondents reported looking for a new primary care physician, while 626 said they had sought a subspecialist during the one-year period.

The survey also found that 70 percent of Medicare patients had "no problem" finding a new primary care physician in 2007; 82 percent of privately insured patients said they had no problem finding a primary care physician. Seventeen percent of Medicare patients reported a "big problem" finding a primary care physician, while only 10 percent of privately insured beneficiaries said they had a "big problem" finding a primary care physician.

In addition, 85 percent of Medicare beneficiaries reported no trouble finding a specialist in 2007, and 79 percent of the privately insured group reported no trouble.

"Access for most beneficiaries remains good for both beneficiaries accessing current physicians and for those seeking new physicians," said Richardson.