Open for business: Most non-pediatric, office-based physicians accepting new patients

Contrary to popular (albeit anecdotal) belief, the “vast majority” of non-pediatric, office-based physicians accept new patients — including those with Medicare and private insurance.

That’s according to a new analysis by researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation. In fact, 89% of physicians accepted new Medicare patients in 2019, and 91% accepted new private insurance patients. Among primary care physicians, the rates are lower yet still comparable for new patients with Medicare (83%) and private insurance (86%).

Related: Why 18% of Americans haven’t been to a doctor in the past 5 years

The analysis, which relied on data from the federal 2019 National Electronic Health Records Survey, also found that roughly the same percentage of non-pediatric, office-based physicians accepted new Medicare patients in 2011 (88%) as in 2019. And the share of physicians who accepted new private insurance patients has risen considerably over that same period — from 81% in 2011 to 91% in 2019.

State-level data also was part of the analysis, and KFF researchers found that in 23 states, at least 90% of all non-pediatric office-based physicians accepted new Medicare patients between 2015 and 2017. Across all states, the share ranged from 76% in Washington, D.C., to 95% each in Iowa, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania — similar to the range for privately-insured patients.

Also noteworthy is that KFF analysts found that the share of physicians accepting new Medicare patients is similar to the share accepting new patients with private insurance across a range of specialties. The share of physicians accepting new patients is lowest among psychiatrists, with 60% accepting new Medicare patients and 59% accepting new privately insured patients. This, researchers add, raises concerns about access to mental health practitioners.

But the overall impact of the report is undeniable.

“The difference in Medicare and private prices has served as the basis for proposals to adopt Medicare rates, or a multiple of Medicare rates, for those with private insurance, or as part of a Medicare-like plan through a public option or single-payer plan,” researchers wrote in the analysis, published May 12.

Their research, they continued, “suggests that Medicare’s relatively lower payment rates for physician services do not generally lead to fewer physicians accepting new Medicare patients.”

One caveat: The fact that the vast majority of physicians are accepting new patients does not mean that all patients will have access to all clinicians, since providers may only be in the networks of some private insurance or Medicare Advantage plans.