Large Swathe of Physicians Shun Medicaid, Medicare Patients

 Medscape Link

May 24, 2012 — Thirty-six percent of physicians are not accepting new Medicaid patients, and 26% see no Medicaid patients at all, according to a new survey from a staffing company called Jackson Healthcare.
The firm's online survey of 2232 physicians in April found that dermatologists are the least likely (34%) among all specialists to accept new Medicaid patients, followed by endocrinologists and plastic surgeons (36% each), general internists (42%), and physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists (43%). The specialists most willing to make an appointment for a new Medicaid patient are pediatric subspecialists (95%), pathologists (90%), radiologists (86%), anesthesiologists (83%), and general surgeons (81%).
The numbers also reveal a lesser degree of physician disenchantment regarding Medicare. Seventeen percent of physicians said they are not accepting new Medicare patients, and 10% said they have closed their practice to Medicare entirely.
The specialists least inclined to see new Medicare patients are adult psychiatrists (57%), plastic surgeons (68%), general internists (73%), family physicians (75%), and obstetricians-gynecologists (76%). In contrast, rates of accepting new Medicare patients top 90% among cardiologists, hematologists/oncologists, general surgeons, anesthesiologists, and neurologists.
Richard Jackson, chairman and chief executive officer of Jackson Healthcare, attributes the widespread closed-door policy regarding Medicaid and Medicare patients to paltry reimbursement.
"Physicians say they just can't afford to be a part of a system that generates so many patients for so little compensation," Jackson stated in a press release. He said that the unwillingness of physicians to treat Medicaid patients does not bode well for healthcare reform, which will extend Medicaid coverage to an additional 16 million people by 2019.