TY - JOUR
T1 - Geographic Variations in Growth of Radiologists and Medicare Enrollees From 2012 to 2019
AU - Khurana, Aditya
AU - Patel, Bhavika
AU - Sharpe, Richard
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 American College of Radiology
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - Objective: Analyze changes in the number of Medicare-serving radiologists and Medicare enrollees nationwide and by geographic region and state from 2012 to 2019 to understand variations in allocation of imaging health care services over the past decade. Methods: The number of radiologists submitting claims to Medicare was extracted from the CMS Physician and Other Supplier Public Use File Database. The number of Medicare enrollees by state was obtained from the Kaiser Family Foundation. National-, regional-, and state-level changes in rates of growth of radiologists, Medicare enrollees, and radiologists per 100,000 Medicare enrollees from 2012 to 2019 were tabulated. Results: The overall number of radiologists per 100,000 Medicare enrollees was 79.7 in 2012, increasing to 79.9 in 2019. In 2012, the number of radiologists per 100,000 enrollees was lower than the national average in the South (66.9; 16% lower) and Midwest (79.1; 0.7% lower) and higher in the Northeast (98.3; 23% higher) and West (88.8; 11% higher). In 2019, the number of radiologists per 100,000 enrollees was lower than the national average in the South (69.8; 12% lower) only and was higher in the Midwest (81.4; 1.9% higher), Northeast (99.3; 24% higher), and West (80.2; 0.4% higher). By state, there was a 4.2-fold variation in the number of radiologists per 100,000 Medicare enrollees, ranging from 38.8 in Wyoming to 161.4 in Minnesota (200.5 in Washington, DC). Discussion: The growth of Medicare-serving radiologists and Medicare enrollees was stable nationally and demonstrated tremendous variations by US region and state. These variations bring to light potential implications for patient access to care and distribution of health care resources.
AB - Objective: Analyze changes in the number of Medicare-serving radiologists and Medicare enrollees nationwide and by geographic region and state from 2012 to 2019 to understand variations in allocation of imaging health care services over the past decade. Methods: The number of radiologists submitting claims to Medicare was extracted from the CMS Physician and Other Supplier Public Use File Database. The number of Medicare enrollees by state was obtained from the Kaiser Family Foundation. National-, regional-, and state-level changes in rates of growth of radiologists, Medicare enrollees, and radiologists per 100,000 Medicare enrollees from 2012 to 2019 were tabulated. Results: The overall number of radiologists per 100,000 Medicare enrollees was 79.7 in 2012, increasing to 79.9 in 2019. In 2012, the number of radiologists per 100,000 enrollees was lower than the national average in the South (66.9; 16% lower) and Midwest (79.1; 0.7% lower) and higher in the Northeast (98.3; 23% higher) and West (88.8; 11% higher). In 2019, the number of radiologists per 100,000 enrollees was lower than the national average in the South (69.8; 12% lower) only and was higher in the Midwest (81.4; 1.9% higher), Northeast (99.3; 24% higher), and West (80.2; 0.4% higher). By state, there was a 4.2-fold variation in the number of radiologists per 100,000 Medicare enrollees, ranging from 38.8 in Wyoming to 161.4 in Minnesota (200.5 in Washington, DC). Discussion: The growth of Medicare-serving radiologists and Medicare enrollees was stable nationally and demonstrated tremendous variations by US region and state. These variations bring to light potential implications for patient access to care and distribution of health care resources.
KW - Access to imaging services
KW - Medicare enrollees
KW - growth rates
KW - health care resources
KW - radiologists
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85137642329&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85137642329&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jacr.2022.06.009
DO - 10.1016/j.jacr.2022.06.009
M3 - Article
C2 - 35961410
AN - SCOPUS:85137642329
SN - 1546-1440
VL - 19
SP - 1006
EP - 1014
JO - Journal of the American College of Radiology
JF - Journal of the American College of Radiology
IS - 9
ER -