Minority Physicians Play Critical Role in Treating Medicaid Populations

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Minority physicians, or physicians underrepresented in medicine (URiM), are more likely to treat Medicaid patients, according to a study published in the September issue of the Annals of Family Medicine. Official Medicaid provider status is defined as having seen at least 150 Medicaid beneficiaries in a year. Black family physicians saw 354 Medicaid beneficiaries per year and physicians of Latine, Hispanic or Spanish (LHS) origin saw 342 Medicaid beneficiaries per year.

Increased diversity in care could help tackle racial health inequities within these communities. For example, greater Black healthcare worker representation was associated with better health outcomes in Black patients, according to the results of a study posted last April in JAMA Network Open.

A team of researchers led by Anushree Vichare, Ph.D., M.B.B.S., M.P.H., from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., used data from 13,096 family physicians across 44 states and compared it with 2016 Medicaid claims data from the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) and the 2016-2017 American Board of Family Medicine certification questionnaire responses.

In the sample:

• 72% were White
• 15% were Asian
• 7% were Black
• 7% were LHS
• 1% were American Indian/Alaska Native AIAN and non-LHS HPI

“These findings clearly show the critical role URiM FPs play in caring for Medicaid beneficiaries, suggesting physician race and ethnicity are correlated with Medicaid participation,” Vichare and her team write. “Policies need to address problems in pathways to medical education, including failures to recruit, nurture, and retain URiM students.”

Overall, each family physician saw an average of 292 Medicaid beneficiaries in 2016 meaning, 52% were considered official Medicaid providers. Family physicians were also more likely to see Medicaid patients who were of similar racial and ethnicity to them. For example, about 55% of LHS family physicians’ patients were of LHS ethnicity.

Family physicians were more likely to see Medicaid patients in rural areas, with an odds ratio of 1.42.

Greater primary care reimbursement rate for Medicaid was not associated with the likelihood of becoming an official Medicaid provider.

Medicaid currently serves at least 90 million low-income people in the United States.

Despite efforts to promote diversity in the physician workforce, diversity remains low. For example, in 2022, only 5% of physicians identified as Black, 7% as Latine and only 0.3% as American Indian or Alaska Native.

“The adoption of policies focused on recruiting, admitting, retaining, and nurturing students of diverse backgrounds by institutions of higher education, including medical schools, can be an important pathway to diversify the health workforce,” Vichare and her team conclude.