title: Testing the Validity of Primary Care Physicians' Self-Reported Acceptance of New Patients by Insurance Status.
abstract: To compare physicians' self-reported willingness to provide new patient appointments with the experience of research assistants posing as either a Medicaid beneficiary or privately insured person seeking a new patient appointment.
  
  
  
  Survey administered to California physicians and telephone calls placed to a subsample of respondents.
  
  
  
  Cross-sectional comparison.
  
  
  
  All physicians whose California licenses were due for renewal in June or July 2013 were mailed a survey, which included questions about acceptance of new Medicaid and new privately insured patients. Subsequently, research assistants using a script called the practices of a stratified random sample of 209 primary care physician respondents in an attempt to obtain a new patient appointment. By design, half of the physicians selected for the telephone validation reported on the survey that they accepted new Medicaid patients and half indicated that they did not.
  
  
  
  The percentage of callers posing as Medicaid patients who could schedule new patient appointments was 18 percentage points lower than the percentage of physicians who self-reported on the survey that they accept new Medicaid patients. Callers were also less likely to obtain appointments when they posed as patients with private insurance.
  
  
  
  Physicians overestimate the extent to which their practices are accepting new patients, regardless of insurance status.
authors.affiliation: Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Janet M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Coffman
authors.affiliation: Care Management Design and Evaluation, Northwell Health.
authors.forename: Karin V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.affiliation: Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fix
authors.affiliation: Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.
authors.forename: Andrew B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Bindman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D002140:California; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007348:Insurance, Health; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid; D008875:Middle Aged; D058007:Physicians, Primary Care; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
keywords: Medicaid; access; new patient appointments; physicians; primary care