Assessment of Racial Disparities in Primary Care Physician Specialty Referrals.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Disparities in quality of care according to patient race and socioeconomic status persist in the US. Differential referral patterns to specialist physicians might be associated with observed disparities.

Objective

To examine whether differences exist between Black and White Medicare beneficiaries in the observed patterns of patient sharing between primary care physicians (PCPs) and physicians in the 6 specialties to which patients were most frequently referred.

Design, setting, and participants

This cross-sectional observational study of Black and White Medicare beneficiaries used claims data from 2009 to 2010 on 100% of traditional Medicare beneficiaries who were seen by PCPs and selected high-volume specialists in 12 health care markets with at least 10%

SUBMITTER: Landon BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7835717 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature