Supplementary Table 2
Proportion of Physicians Willing to Accept New Patients by Specialty

Note: Changes in specialists’ willingness to accept all new patients regardless of their insurance coverage depended on the physician’s specialty. Surgical specialists’ willingness to accept all new Medicare, Medicaid and privately insured patients declined between 1997 and 2001. In contrast, a growing proportion of medical specialists accepted all new patients. There was no statistically significant change in the proportion of primary care physicians who accepted all new patients.

 
1996-97
1998-99
2000-01
Physicians accepting all new Medicare, Medicaid and privately insured patients
Primary care physicians
36.0
37.0
35.1
Medical specialist
50.5
54.7*
55.4#
Surgical specialist
51.0
48.8
44.8*#

* Change from previous survey is statistically significant at p<.05.
# Change from 1997-2001 is statistically significant at p<.05.
Source: HSC Community Tracking Survey Household Survey