Fewer Patients Seeking Primary Care

It’s no news that the U.S. has been experiencing a primary care shortage, but the impact of that shortage is now being seen on the patient side according to a recent study from FAIR Health, a nonprofit that collects data on privately billed and Medicare health insurance claims.

FAIR Health found that from 2016 to 2022, 29% of patients—or three in 10 people—who received medical services didn’t once visit a primary care provider. Actual percentages varied by state with a high of 43% of patients in Tennessee not receiving primary care services compared to a low of 16% in Massachusetts.

Of the providers who performed primary care services during this period, 56% were physicians, while 44% were non-physicians, with nurse practitioners making up the largest share of primary care providers by specialty at 27%, followed by family medicine physicians and 20%, internal medicine physicians at 18% and physician assistants at 15%.

States with the largest percentage of patients receiving care from family medicine physicians were more rule while states with the largest portion of patients receiving care from a nurse practitioner were those that allowed for a broader scope of practice.

Read the full study here.