The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a report on “Access to Physicians’ Services for Medicare Beneficiaries”, which shows that physician participation in Medicare is growing. Among the key points:
- The percentage of all office-based physicians who report accepting new Medicare patients has not changed significantly – from 87.9% of physicians in 2005, to 90.7% in 2012.
- The number of physicians who have agreed to accept Medicare continues to grow — from 705,568 in 2012 to 735,041 in 2013.
- The percentage of physicians who report accepting new Medicare patients is similar to, and in recent years slightly higher than, the percentage accepting new privately insured patients.
- Medicare beneficiary access to care is high and has remained stable over the past five years.
Here is a link to the brief: http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2013/PhysicianMedicare/ib_PhysicianMedicare.cfm