 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
|
| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Keith T. Elder, PhD, MPH, MPA, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 3704 Erma Terrace, Bowie, MD 20716, 301-352-8570, e.keith@worldnet.att.net
This abstract is submitted for consideration for the Betty J. Cleckley Minority Issues Research Award in the Gerontological Health Section Awards. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the termination and denial rates of minority physicians’ managed care contracts across all specialties in the state of Maryland compared to non-minority physicians. This study also investigated the patient characteristics of those physicians with the highest contract denials and terminations rates. METHOD: The Maryland Study on Physician Experience with Managed Care Survey served as the data under analysis in the study. The sample consisted of 1215 active physicians who were likely to have had an experience with managed care in the state of Maryland. Probit regressions were used to examine the impact of physician race and patient demographics on the rate of contract denials and terminations by managed care organizations. FINDINGS: Patient ethnicity was a predictor for contract denials and terminations. After adjusting for physician training and physicians practice characteristics, percent of Latino and African American patients were predictors for contract denials, and percent of Asian and Latino patients were predictors for contract terminations. The greater the percentages of African American and Latino patients a physician sees, the higher the probability that physician will a contract denied. The larger the percentage of Latino patients a physician has, the less likely the physician is to have a contract terminated. The larger the percentage of Asian patients a physician has, the more likely the physician is to have a contract terminated.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Access to Health Care, Minorities
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.