Study: Docs provide same care for Medicaid patients, those with private coverage

A new study has found no evidence that primary-care physicians spend less time with safety net patients and the uninsured than with privately insured patients (Source: “Study finds no evidence docs provide less care to safety net patients,” Modern Healthcare, Sept. 9, 2013.

The findings, published this week in the journal Health Affairs,  counter longstanding assumptions that doctors give less attention to Medicaid and uninsured patients.

Researchers looked at the amount of time physicians spent with patients and found no significant differences between those with private insurance and patients with Medicaid or those uninsured.

“We found that doctors were treating patients based on their individual needs,” said Brian K. Bruen, study lead author and lead research scientist in the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University's School of Public Health and Health Services. “I think we'll see that sort of pattern continue under the ACA expansion.”

Bruen said the study found that primary-care physicians spent on average 18 minutes with each patient, and a longer period with new patients and those with serious medical conditions, regardless of the type of coverage.