Medicaid beneficiaries face barriers in accessing medical care – and that includes contraceptive care. A new study finds that despite birth control being an essential health service, all primary care physicians that see them may not be offering Medicaid patients some of the most effective, longer-acting birth control methods. While nearly half (48%) of primary care physicians who treat Medicaid patients provided prescription contraception like the birth control pill, only 10% provided longer-acting methods like IUDs and implants. This is in accordance to a new study published in JAMA Health Forum.

In this analysis, the researchers found that a physician’s characteristics – including their clinical specialty, age, gender and the Medicaid expansion status of their state – were associated with both providing any contraceptive care and with the number of beneficiaries provided contraceptive care.

This study suggests that ensuring access to contraceptive services among Medicaid beneficiaries may require policy and program approaches tailored to different physician specialties. For example, primary care doctors from certain specialties would need more training to provide the full scope of contraceptive care to their patients.

The authors hence concluded that by studying the primary care workforce that provides contraceptive care to this population, the research helps shed light on important factors that predict access to these critical health services.

Reference:

Few Medicaid-participating primary care physicians providing longer-acting birth control methods; JAMA Health Forum.