Study: 41% of patients continue to seek primary care from specialists.

In continuing coverage from yesterday's briefing, Reuters reports a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that between 1999 and 2007, 41% of primary care visits annually were to specialists rather than primary care doctors. In addition to the increased cost - with, Reuters notes, primary care physicians charging less than specialists - but lead author Dr. Minal Kale of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine also told Reuters that other research suggests patients have better outcomes when their initial visit is with a family practitioner, rather than a specialist.

        Medscape (8/22, Waknine) reports, "Investigators analyzed data from the 1999 and 2007 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys, which included 20,959 (n = 8730 from 1999 and n = 12,229 from 2007) primary care visits for adults requiring treatment either for common symptoms and diseases such as fever, nasal congestion, anemia, and asthma or for general preventive medical examinations." They found that "only 60% of primary care was dispensed by primary care physicians (PCPs; 58.1% in 1999 and 57.2% in 2007; P = .79). The balance for these types of primary care visits was covered by internal medicine subspecialists (9.1% in 1999 and 9.6% in 2007; P = .82), obstetrician-gynecologists (3.4% in 1999 and 2.8% in 2007; P = .36), and other subspecialists (29.4% in 1999 and 30.4% in 2007; P = .73)."