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Tennessee has lower rate of Medicaid acceptance than neighbor states

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By Mariann Martin 4 min read

photo Gordon Bonnyman, director of the nonprofit Tennessee Justice Center

AT A GLANCEPercentage of U.S. office-based physicians accepting new Medicaid patients, 2011* Average: 69.4 percent* Tennessee: 61.4 percent (fifth lowest)* Georgia: 67.4 percent (12th lowest)* Alabama: 68.5 percent (16th lowest)Percentage of U.S. office-based physicians accepting patients, by specialty category, 2011* Any new patients: 96.1 percent* Medicaid: 69.4 percent* Medicare: 83 percent* Private insurance: 81.7 percent* Self-pay: 91.7 percentSource: August 2012 Health Affairs journal

Four out of 10 Tennessee doctors say they do not accept new Medicaid patients.

The percentage is lower than the national average of nearly 70 percent and the fifth lowest in the nation, according to a study released this month in the journal Health Affairs.

Nationally, doctors accept Medicare, privately insured and self-paying patients at much higher rates than Medicaid patients, the study found.

The low figure for Medicaid patients puts at issue the capacity of the health care workforce as states consider expanding their Medicaid rolls under federal health care reform, Sandra Decker wrote in the article. Decker is an economist at the National Center for Health Statistics.