Few Medicaid-participating primary care physicians providing longer-acting birth control methods, finds study

Medicaid recipients deal with barriers in accessing treatment– which consists of contraceptive care. A brand-new research study discovers that regardless of contraception being a vital health service, all medical care doctors that see them might not be providing Medicaid clients a few of the most reliable, longer-acting contraception approaches. While almost half (48%) of medical care doctors who deal with Medicaid clients offered prescription birth control like the contraceptive pill, just 10% supplied longer-acting techniques like IUDs and implants, according to a brand-new research study released in JAMA Health Forum.

“This research study is initially of its kind and utilizes a nationwide dataset of all Medicaid declares submitted in the U.S,” Mandar Bodas, a research study researcher at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health and lead author of the research study, stated. “In our analysis, we discovered that a doctor’s qualities– including their medical specialized, age, gender and the Medicaid growth status of their state– were related to both offering any contraceptive care and with the variety of recipients offered contraceptive care,” Bodas stated.

This research study recommends that making sure access to contraceptive services amongst Medicaid recipients might need policy and program methods customized to various doctor specializeds. Bodas states that main care medical professionals from particular specializeds would require more training to offer the complete scope of contraceptive care to their clients.

“Previous research study informs us that Medicaid recipients deal with a variety of barriers to accessing medical care, and our research study discovers that a person of those barriers is absence of access to the complete variety of contraceptive approaches,” Julia Strasser, among the Primary Investigators of the research study task and Director of the Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health at the GW Milken Institute School of Public Health, stated.

“If a client goes to a doctor who is the only company in the location that accepts Medicaid, which doctor just offers the contraceptive pill however not other techniques, then it’s tough to state that the client has sensible access to all kinds of birth control,” Strasser stated.

By studying the medical care labor force that offers contraceptive care to this population, the research study assists clarify essential aspects that forecast access to these important health services, the authors stated.

The paper, “Association of Primary Care Physicians’ Individual- and Community-Level Characteristics With Contraceptive Service Provision to Medicaid Beneficiaries,” was released in JAMA Health Forum on March 17.