Physicians less likely to provide charity care

The number of physicians providing charity care and treating Medicaid patients declined between 1997 and 2001, according to a new national tracking study recently released by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). The proportion of physicians providing charity care declined by nearly

The percentage of uninsured patients with a usual source of care-already far lower than for insured people-dropped more than four points from 68.6 percent in 1997 to 64.2 percent in 2001. At the same time, the proportion of uninsured people who saw a physician in the past year dropped from 51.5 percent to 46.6 percent.

There was less of a decline in access for Medicaid patients, with 90.6 percent of patients reporting a usual source of care in 2001, down from 92.9 percent in 1997. During the same period, the proportion of Medicaid patients who saw a physician in the last year remained unchanged at about 83 percent. To obtain a copy of the study, e-mail acassil@hschange.org.