Physiciansʼ Receptiveness to Teen Medicaid Recipients Seeking Office- Based Prenatal Care

Various models of physician participation in Medicaid have been developed through the exclusive use of physician surveys or Medicaid claim records. In an attempt to make the participation model more holistic, this research takes an alternative tactic considering the perspectives of first-time patients attempting to gain prenatal care appointment information. Analysis was done on 221 obstetrician-gynecologists in the Chicago area regarding whether they do or do not accept Medicaid recipients for prenatal care. Only 81 (36.7%) of physicians accepted new Medicaid patients. Further, the office support of those physicians who accept Medicaid patients was much more likely to be helpful to patients seeking appointment information. These results indicate that access to office-based prenatal care for poorer, urban populations is limited, especially for populations who often need specialized care. Overall, it is argued that the physicians' receptiveness model that is introduced with this research provides a more complete picture of access barriers for the country's most needy populations

Environmental health · Family medicine · Health care · Medicaid · Political science · Population · Prenatal care · Healthcare Policy and Management · Law · Medicine · Nursing · Patient Satisfaction in Healthcare · Primary Care and Health Outcomes