A new study published in Health Affairs found no evidence that primary care physicians offer less care to patients who are not privately insured.
The study was inspired by the common belief that care in safety-net settings is of a lower quality than care offered to patients with private insurance.
Study authors examined the length and content of more than 31,000 primary care visits between 2006 and 2010 of patients insured by Medicaid, uninsured patients and patients seen in community health centers. The authors did not discover significant differences in appointment length or the likelihood of a patient receiving preventative care or health counseling between the groups of patients.
Instead, the main factors controlling both visit length and content were the purpose of the visit and the patient’s health needs, according to the study.
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