Study: Ohio to have 10th greatest primary care challenge with ACA Medicaid expansion

According to an article published online last week by the New England Journal of Medicine, the expansion of Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act will pose challenges for primary care in some states, with Ohio ranked 10th in an index of states likely to have the greatest challenge in meeting the primary care needs of the expanded Medicaid population (Source: “Study: States Need More Primary Care Capacity for Medicaid Expansion,” Nurse.com, Jan. 28, 2011).

The authors of the article contend that states with restrictive Medicaid eligibility requirements and high rates of residents with no insurance healthcare coverage will expand substantially in 2014, when the ACA goes into full effect. The authors created an Access-Challenge Index, with scores calculated as the ratio of Medicaid expansion to primary care capacity in each state. States with scores greater than 100 are predicted to have higher-than average Medicaid expansion relative to their current primary care capacity. Ohio’s score is 128. 2. Oklahoma has the highest score, 212.6, and Massachusetts has the lowest score, 15.2.

“Federal and state officials will need to collaborate with physicians and other clinicians to bolster primary care capacity when the insurance expansions begin just three years from now,” said lead author Leighton Ku, PhD, MPH, professor of health policy at George Washington. “The challenges are greater in southern and Midwestern states because insurance coverage will grow more in those states but they have fewer practitioners ready to provide care.”