The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery recently published a study examining regional Medicaid access to outpatient orthopedic care.
The researchers examined 213 orthopedic practices in North Carolina for the study. The practices were contacted twice in three weeks to request an appointment for an adult patient who potentially needed orthopedic surgery. The patient was fictitious.
The fictitious patient either had a rotator cuff tear, zone-II flexor tendon lacerations or an acute lumbar disc herniation. The patient reported Medicaid status at the first phone call and then private insurance at the second phone call. The researchers found:
• 59 percent of the practices offered the Medicaid patient an appointment within two weeks.
• 79 percent of the practices offered the private insurance patient an appointment within two weeks.
• Rural practices were more likely to offer Medicaid patient appointments than urban practices.
• Practices more than 60 miles away from academic medical centers were more likely to accept Medicaid patients than closer practices.
"A shift in policy to enhance access to orthopedic care for patients with Medicaid, especially those in urban areas and areas close to academic medical centers, will become increasingly important as more patients become eligible for Medicaid through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010," concluded the study authors.