Volume 10, Number 3 (Summer) 1975
Holahan, John. 1975. "Physician Availability, Medical Care Reimbursement, and Delivery of Physician Services: Some Evidence from the Medicaid Program." Journal of Human Resources 10(3):378-402.
The paper provides an analysis of factors affecting utilization of physician services in the Medicaid program. Two utilization measures, the percentage of eligibles seeing a physician and the level of expenditures per recipient, are considered. Emphasis is placed on the impact of alternative physician reimbursement methods and on the effect of the distribution of physicians, both geographically and among specialties, on the use of services by Medicaid eligibles. The paper demonstrates that fee schedules have quite large cost-reducing effects, that utilization rates are responsive to the availability of physicians, and that nonwhites use fewer Medicaid financed services than whites.
Dr. Holahan is a member of the senior research staff of the Urban Institute.
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US ISSN 0022-166X