Most Medicare patients don't have any problems accessing a provider - in fact, many areas are overserved by medical practices. That's what the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found in a new report, commissioned by Congress and physician groups to see if beneficiary access to providers was lacking.
The report found the opposite. "Very small percentages of Medicare beneficiaries - less than 3% - reported major difficulties accessing physician services in 2007 and 2008. The proportion of beneficiaries who received physician services and the number of services per beneficiary served increased nationwide from April 2000 to April 2008 (see GAO chart, below)."
The key point: A total of 72 physician payment localities are "potentially overserved," the GAO found. The agency defined "potentially overserved" areas are defined as payment localities that were in the top 50% for both the level and growth in utilization of physician services.
The top three overserved areas are:
- The White Plains region of New York;
- the Fort Myers/Cape Coral region of Florida;
- and Lake County, Illinois.
As a general rule, overserved areas "tend to be in the more densely populated urban regions and the eastern part of the United States," the GAO notes. "Large metropolitan areas were much more likely to be potentially overserved than rural and small metropolitan areas. Areas east of the Mississippi River were also more likely to be potentially overserved than those in the west."
You can snag the whole report, called "Medicare Physician Services: Utilization Trends Indicate Sustained Beneficiary Access with High and Growing Levels of Service in Some Areas of the Nation," from our PBN Library.