Reimbursement and access to physicians' services under Medicaid

Several recent studies have shown that physician participation in state Medicaid programs is directly related to the generosity of their reimbursement levels. The implication is that when states reduce fees, Medicaid eligibles suffer because their access to physicians' services is thereby limited. The results presented in this paper do not support this implication. Multivariate analyses of utilization and site-of-visit patterns among non-elderly Medicaid eligibles indicate that stringent physician reimbursement practices do not impede access to ambulatory care when all sites at which a doctor may be seen are considered.