Primary care physicians treating a disproportionate share of black and Latino patients typically earn less, see more patients, provide more charity care, treat more Medicaid patients, and receive lower private insurance payments than their counterparts who treat fewer such patients, according to a national study funded by the Commonwealth Fund and published April 22 as a web exclusive in Health Affairs.
These same physicians also reported more problems providing high-quality care, ranging from inadequate time with their patients to difficulty obtaining specialty care. The study found that 35 percent of physicians in high-minority practices reported that patients’ inability to pay was a major barrier to providing high-quality care, compared with 23 percent of physicians in low-minority practices.
Conducted by researchers at the Center for Studying Health System Change, the study sheds new light on the pervasive racial and ethnic health disparities in the United States by looking beyond individual patient characteristics to community and physician practice resources. The study also examined how higher Medicaid payments might help physicians treating mostly minority patients provide high-quality care and reduce racial and ethnic disparities. Read the abstract.
