Access to Specialists a Problem
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports that 1 in 13 American adults who needed to see a specialist in 2007 said that getting access was a “big problem.” The data come from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The agency said that respondents were not asked why they had access problems. But the survey report added that access problems can be due to a lack of health insurance, specialists' nonparticipation in a patient's health plan, and long waits for appointments. The survey found that 16% of adults without primary care physicians had problems accessing specialists, compared with 6% of those who had a usual source of primary care. Nonelderly uninsured adults had the most difficulty getting in to see a specialist, followed by nonelderly adults with public health coverage and those with private insurance. More data are available in the agency's report, “Variations in Perceived Need and Access to Specialty Care Among Adults in the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2007,” available at
www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/data_files/publications/st274/stat274.pdf