The vast majority of nonpediatric office-based physicians are accepting new patients with Medicare and private insurance, according to a May 12 Kaiser Family Foundation report.
The Kaiser Family Foundation's report analyzed data from the federal 2019 National Electronic Health Records Survey.
Six things to know:
1. Eighty-nine percent of physicians accepted new Medicare patients, and 91 percent accepted new private insurance patients in 2019.
2. Eight-three percent of primary care physicians accepted new Medicare patients and 86 percent accepted new private insurance patients in 2019.
3. Physicians accepted new Medicare patients at a similar rate in 2019 as in 2011 (88 percent).
4. The number of physicians accepting new private insurance patients grew 10 percentage points between 2011 and 2019.
5. Psychiatrists were the least likely to accept new patients in 2019: 60 percent accepted new Medicare patients and 59 percent accepted new private insurance patients.
6. One percent of physicians formally opted out of the Medicare program in 2022, with psychiatrists being the most likely to opt out (7.5 percent).